
i lass 

[look 



PRESENTED BY 



THE LIFE 



OP 



ABEAHAM LINCOLN, 



BY 



J: G. HOLLAND, 

MEMBER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



SPEINGFIELD, MASS.: 
PUBLISHED BY GUKDON BILL. 

1866. 



AGENTS WANTED. 



Energetic men, of good address, arc wanted in all parts of the United 
States and Canada, to act as agents for the Life of Abraham Lin- 
coln, by Dr. J. G. Holland; History of tue Civil War in America, 
by Rev. J. S. C. Abbott; Life of Washington, by Hon. J. T. Ileadley ; 
and other popular works, which are sold only by subscription. 

Persons wishing an agency, can obtain full particulars by applying at 
the office of the subscriber, or addressing by mail, 

GUHDON BILL, 

Springfield, Mass. 



DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



HOLLAND'S 

LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 

COMPRISING A FULL AMD COMPLETE 

SISTOMY OF HIS EVENTFUL LIFE, 

WITH 

incidents of his earlt history, his career as a lawyer and 

politician, his advancement to the presidency of 

the united states and commander-in-chief of 

the army and navy through the most 

trying period of its history, 

TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OP 

THE TRAGICAL AND MOURNFUL SCENES 

Connected with the Close of his Noble and Eventful Life. 



By Dr. J. G. HOLLAND, 

The widely known and favorite author of the "Timothy Titcomb" Letters, "Bitter 
Sweet," " Gold Foil," &c, &c. 

The author's aim will be to describe as graphically as may be the private and public 
life of the humble citizen, the successful lawyer, the pure politician, the far-sighted 
Christian statesman, the efficient philanthropist, and the honored Chief Magistrate. The 
people desire a biography which shall narrate to them with a measurable degree of 
symmetry and completeness, the story of a life which has been intimately associated 
with their own and changed the course of American history through all coming time. 
Such a narrative as this it will be the author's aim to give-one that shall be sufficiently 
full in detail without being prolix, and circumstantial without being dull. 

The work will be published in a handsome Octavo volume of about five hundred and 
fifty pages, on fine paper, printed from electrotype plates, and will be embellished by 
an elegant Portrait of Mr. Lincoln, with a finely engraved view of his residence in 
Springfield, Illinois, and other Steel engravings. 

The work will also be issued in the German Language at the same price of the Eng- 
lish edition. 






THE HISTORY 

OF THE 

CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA, 

COMPRISING A FULL AND IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT OP THE 

ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE REBELLION, 

OP TIIE VARIOUS 

NAVAL ANI> MILITAKY ENGAGJE3IENTS 

OF THE 

Heroic Deeds performed by Annies and Individuals, 



AND OP 



TOUCHING: SCENES IN THE FIELD, THE CAMP, THE He "ITAL 
AND THE CABIN. 

By J. S. C. ABBOTT, 

Author of the "Life of Napoleon," "History of the French Revolution," "Mcmarchs of 

Continental Europe," &c. 

ILLUSTRATED WITH DIAGRAMS AND NUMEROUS STEEL ENGRAVINGS, OF BATTLE SCENES 

AND PORTRAITS OF DISTINGUISHED MEN, BY THE BEST ARTISTS. 

Ilf TWO VOLUMES. 

ex^rlssly forlr work- tflU^ ^TT ed ° n , Stee1 ' b ? the bes * Artists, 
J^^^nbepnW^^ language as well as in the English. 

THE ILLUSTRATED 

LIFE OF WASHINGTON 

WITH 

. VIVID PEN-PAINTINGS OF BATTLES AND INCIDENTS, TRIALS 

AND TRIUMPHS OF THE HEROES AND SOLDIERS OF 

REVOLUTIONARY TIMES. 

By Hon. J. T. HEADLEY, 

Author of "Washington and his G ^^ s ^|poleon and his Marshals," "Sacred 

TOGETHER WITH AN INTERESTING, ACCOUNT OF 

MOUJVT VEHJVOJV AS IT IS 

By BENSON J. LOSSLNG. 

Tho whole embellished with numerous Steel and Wood Engravings, and a 

splendid Colored Lithographic View of Mount Vernon 

and Washington's Tomb. 

of T the fac?s U and in^n? C - aV t °v, y °v l ) m % °i over 500 P a S. e9 embraces a brilliant narration 
try--Geor£ wthinifon tn^fh''^ "£.*£•** remarl ^ble man, and Father of his Co, m- 
Comwisha m.fpi ' £ "' , t ?" ethe 1 l w ' t . h ]"s connection with the Revolutionary War, Ac 

Purn P a m ?KhfreseVchl 1 of P M * n T V nform;Uio , n > delived from the P«P er * <* Genera 

When everv h HrftZlT °. f , Mr " Lossin g.-mformation embraced in no other book. 

aroused towards the m IrJ'if e " ,h "? las , t,c gratitude, and public feeling is thoroughly 

^^^&^r^^z^^^^ the demand " s every day 



PREFACE. 



I have undertaken to write a biography of Abraham Lin- 
coln for the people ; and, although they will be certain to learn 
what I have accomplished and what I have failed to accom- 
plish in the book, I cannot consent to pass it into their hands 
without a statement of what I have aimed to do, and what I 
have not aimed to do, in its preparation. I am moved to this, 
partly by my wish that they may not be disappointed in the 
character of the effort, and partly by my desire that, in making 
up their judgment upon the work, they may have some refer- 
ence to my intentions. 

First, then, I have not aimed to write a History of the Re- 
bellion. Second, I have not aimed to write a political or a 
military history of Mr. Lincoln's administration. Third, I 
have not aimed to present any considerable number of Mr. 
Lincoln's letters, speeches and state-papers. Fourth, I have 
not attempted to disguise or conceal my own personal partial- 
ity for Mr. Lincoln, and my thorough sympathy with the 
political principles to which his life was devoted. Though 



6 PREFACE. 

unconscious of any partiality for a party, capable of blinding 
my vision or distorting my judgment, I am aware that, at this 
early day, when opinions are still sharply divided upon the 
same questions concerning principles, policies and men, which 
prevailed during Mr. Lincoln's active political life, it is impos- 
sible to utter any judgment which will not have a bearing up- 
on the party politics of the time. Thus, the only alternative 
of writing according to personal partialities and personal con- 
victions, has been writing without any partialities, and with- 
out any convictions. I have chosen to be a man, rather than 
a machine ; and, if this shall subject me to the charge of writ- 
ing in the interest of a party, I must take what comes of it. 

I have tried to paint the character of Mr. Lincoln, and to 
sketch his life, clinging closely to his side ; giving attention to 
cotemporaneous history no further than it has seemed necessary 
to reveal his connection with public events ; and re-producing 
his letters, speeches and state-papers to no greater extent than 
they were deemed requisite to illustrate his personal character, 
to throw light upon specially interesting phases of his private 
life and public career, to exhibit the style and scope of his 
genius, and to expose his social, political and religious senti- 
ments and opinions. In pursuing this course, I have been 

« 
obliged to leave large masses of interesting material behind 

me, and to condense into the briefest space what the more 
general historian will dwell upon in detail. 

From much of the history of Mr. Lincoln's public life, to 
which his future biographers will have access, I have been 
excluded. The records and other evidences of his intimate 



r K E F A C E . 7 

connection with all the events of the war for the presi rvation 
of American nationality, are in the archives of the War 1). - 
partment; and they arc there retained, only to be rev 
when the present generation shall have passed away. Th< 
Life of Washington, even though it was written by a Mar- 
shall, with the abundant access tc unpublished document? 
which his position enabled him to command, or which it « 
the policy of the government to afford him, waited half a 
century for Irving, to give it symmetry and completeness. 
The humbler biographers of Mr. Lincoln, though they satisfy 
an immediate want, and gather much which would otherwisr 
be forever lost, can hardly hope to be more than tributaries 
to that better and completer biography which the next, or 
some succeeding generation, will be sure to produce and 
possess. 

I have no opportunity, except that which this page affords 
me, to acknowledge my indebtedness to those who have as- 
sisted me in the collection of unpublished materials for this 
volume. I have been indebted specially to William II. Hern- 
don, Esq., of Springfield, Illinois, for many years Mr. Lincoln's 
law partner, who has manifested, from the first, the kin 
interest in my book; to New T ton Bateinan, Esq., Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction in Illinois; to James Q. Howard. 
Esq., United States Consul at St. John, iS T ew Brunswick: to 
Hon. John D. Defrecs, Superintendent of Public Printing in 
Washington; tp Hon. Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts : to 
Horace White, Esq., of the Chicago Tribune ; to IT. F. Linder, 
Esq., of Chicago; to J. F. Speed, Esq., of Louisville, Ken 



8 PREFACE. 

tucky; to Judge S. T. Logan, Hon. Jesse K. Dubois, Rev. 
A. Hale, and Hon. Erastus Wright, old neighbors and friends 
of Air. Lincoln in Illinois; to Rev. J. T. Duryea, of NeAv 
York; and George H. Stuart, Esq., of Philadelphia. To 
these, and to the unnamed but not forgotten friends who 
have aided me, I return my hearty thanks. 

Putnam's "Record of the Rebellion" has proved itself an 
inexhaustible fountain of valuable and interesting facts ; and I 
have been much indebted to McPherson's History of the Re- 
bellion, the best arranged and most complete collection of pub- 
lic documents relating to the war that has been published. I 
have freely consulted the campaign biographies of Messrs. 
Scripps, Raymond, and Barrett, to the excellence of which I 
bear cheerful testimony. Among other books that have been 
useful to me, are Nichols' "Story of the Great March,' 1 
Coggeshall's " Journeys of Abraham Lincoln," Schalk/s 
"Campaigns of 1862 and 1863," and Halsted's "Caucuses of 
1860." Carpenter's "Reminiscences," published in the New 
York Independent, and an article by Noah Brooks in Harp- 
er's Magazine, have furnished me also with some very inter- 
estino; materials. 

Hoping that the volume will be as pleasant, instructive and 
inspiring in the reading as it has been in the writing, I present 
it to my indulgent friends, the American people. 

J. G. H. 

Springfield, Mass., November, 1865. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
BIRTH AND CIIILDHOOD. 

Birth— Daniel Boone and the Pioneers of Kentucky— Abraham Lincoln, the Grand- 
father of the President— His Kemoval to Kentucky, and Death— His Brothers and 
S n S — Probable Origin of the Lincolns— Thomas Lincoln, the Father of the Presi- 
dent—His Marriage— His Children— The Mother of the President— Early Education 
of Abraham Lincoln— His Schoolmasters— Zaehariah Riney— Caleb Hazel— Reli 
Habits of the People— Parson Elkin— Slavery in Kentucky— Defective Land-titles 
—Removal of Thomas Lincoln to Indiana, 17 

CHAPTER II. 
TOUTH. 

Lincoln's early Industry— His Schools— Simplicity of Border Life— Death of his Mother 
—Her Funeral Sermon— Her Influence upon his Character— His early Practice of 
Writing— His Books— Anecdote illustrating his Honesty— His Father's second Mar- 
riage—Anecdote illustrating Mr. Lincoln's Humanity— He builds a Boat— A Fact 
for°the Psychologist— He takes charge of a Flat-boat for New Orleans— His Con- 
test with seven Negroes— He sells the Boat and Cargo, and returns on foot— His 
Mental Development — His Moral Character, S7 

CHAPTER III. 
EARLY MANHOOD. 

Marriages in Thomas Lincoln's Family— Marriage and Death of Abraham's Sister- 
Removal of Thomas Lincoln to Illinois— Difficulties of the Journey— Abraham as- 
sists in building a Log House and insplitting Rails— He leaves Home— Works for 
hire, Chopping Wood and Farming— Anecdote— Thomas Lincoln removes to Coles 
County— His death— Abraham goes to New Orleans with a Cargo of Swine— He is 
employed in a Store at New Salem— Anecdotes illustrating his Honesty— His Pun- 
ishment of a Bully— His Adventure with the "Clary's Grove Boys"— He studio-. 
English Grammar— Attends Debating Clubs— Anecdote— His Employer fails, ami 
the Store is closed— Mr. Lincoln is called "Honest Abe," MS 



10 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 

Black Hawk — His Treachery— Governor Reynolds calls for Volunteers— Lincoln enlists 
— He is chosen Captain— His Popularity with the Soldiers— Forced Marches — 
"Stillman's Defeat'' — Flight of the Indians — Volunteers Discharged — Lincoln re- 
enlists— Capture of Black Hawk— Lincoln's Speech on General Cass— Mr. Lincoln 
becomes a Candidate for the Legislature— He is Defeated — Purchases a Store, but 
fails in Business— Is appointed Postmaster — Anecdote illustrating his Honesty— He 
becomes a Surveyor, , 48 

CHAPTER V. 

CHARACTER OF MR. LINCOLN ON ENTERING PUBLIC LIFE. 

Mr. Lincoln was a Self-made Man — Loyal to his Convictions — Marked and Peculiar — 
Anecdotes — He was Respected and Loved — A Man of Practical Expedients — Anec- 
dote — Mr. Lincoln was a Religious Man — His Faith in Divine Providence — His Log- 
ical and Reasoning Powers— He was Child-like, SS 

♦ 

CHAPTER VI. 

MR. LINCOLN IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 

Mr. Lincoln contemplates the Study of Law— He begins to make Speeches— Elected to 
the Legislature in 1834 — Commences the Study of Law— Goes on foot to the Capi- 
tal—Returns to the Study of Law and to Surveying— Re-elected to the Legislature 
in 1836— Speech at Springfield— The "Long Nine"— Distinguished Men in the Leg- 
islature — Change of the State Capital — Mr. Lincoln's first meeting with Stephen A. 
Douglas — Pro-slavery Resolutions adopted — Protest of Abraham Lincoln and Dan 
Stone — Anecdote, V4 

CHAPTER VII. 

MR. LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 

Mr. Lincoln becomes a Law-partner of Major Stuart, and removes to Springfield — Re- 
elected to the Legislature in 1838— Political Parties in Illinois— Mr. Lincoln's Stone? 
— The Member from Wabash County— "Riding the Circuit" in Illinois— Mr. Lin. 
coin's Ability as a Lawyer— His Regard for Justice— Mr. Lincoln and the Pig— His 
Power as an Advocate — His "Colt Case" in the Coles Circuit Court — His Exception- 
able Stories— His Regard for Poor Relatives, 72 

CHAPTER VIII. 

mr. Lincoln's marriage. — the clay campaign. 

Mr. Lincoln Re-eiected to the Legislature in 1840— Strange Incident in his Life— He 
Accepts a Challenge to a Duel— Forms a Law-partnership with Judge Logan— His 
Marriage— His private Letters— His Loyalty to Party— Anecdote illustrating his 
Generosity— Political Contest of 1844 — Mr. Lincoln a Candidate for Presidential 
Elector— He Canvasses the State— Defeat of Mr. Clay— Mr. Lincoln visits him at 
Ashland— Anecdotes illustrating Mr. Lincoln's Courage— Anecdote illustrating his 
strong Party Feeling, 8? 

CHAPTER IX. 
MR. LINCOLN IN CONGRESS. THE MEXICAN WAR. 

Mr, Lincoln nominated for Congress in 1846— He "Stumps" his District— Elected by a 
large Majority— His fitness for the Position— The old Whig Party and the Mexii - 
War— Mr. Lincoln's Resolutions— Mr. Hudson's Resolution— Mr. Lincoln's Speech, 
January 12th, 1848— Defense of the Postmaster-general— Mr. Lincoln a member of 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 11 



the Whip; Convention of 1S4S— Advocates the nomination of General Taylor— Speech 
in Congress on the Candidates for the Presidency— Correspondence with the Whig 
Lenders in Illinois— Speeches during the Canvass— Second Session of the Thirtieth 
Congress— Mr. Lincoln's Position on the Slavery Question— He seeks for the Posi- 
tion of Commissioner of the General Land Office, but fails, .99 

CHAPTER X. 
RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE. REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI 

COMPROMISE. 

Mr. Lincoln returns to the Practice of his Profession— His Affection for his Children— 
His Absent-mindedness— He Studies Euclid— His Mechanical Skill— Anecdotes il- 
lustrating his Practice of Law— Opinions of Judge Caton, Judge Breese, Judge 
Drummond, and Judge Davis— Mr. Lincoln's Eulogy on Henry Clay— Admission of 
California as a Free State— "Compromise Measures" of 1S50— Election of Mr. Pierce 
to the Presidency— Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and Passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill— Judge Douglas and Popular Sovereignty— Meeting of Douglas and 
Lincoln at Springfield— At Peoria— Extract from Mr. Lincoln's Speech at Peoria— 
Overthrow of the Democratic Party in Illinois— Election of Mr. Trumbull to the 
United States Senate, 1-44 

CHAPTER XI. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

Affairs in Kansas— Border Ruffians— Letter of Mr. Lincoln to Mr. Speed— State of the 
Slavery Question— Mr. Lincoln attends a State Convention at Bloomington— Repub- 
lican Party organized in Illinois— Mr. Lincoln's Speech at the Convention— Mr. Lin- 
coln a Candidate for the Vice-presidency at the National Republican Convention 
of 1S56— Speech at Charleston, Illinois— Speech of Mr. Douglas at Springfield— Mr. 
Lincoln's Reply— The Lecompton Constitution— Position of Mr. Douglas, . . . 144 

CHAPTER XII. 

CONTEST FOR THE SENATORSHIP. 

Sketch of the previous History of Stephen A. Douglas— Mr. Lincoln's Opinion of hum- 
Mr. Douglas opposes the Leeompton Constitution— Democratic State Convention- 
Eastern Republicans favor Mr. Douglas' Re-election— Views of the Republican 
Party in Illinois— Republican State Convention— Resolution on the Dred Scott De- 
cision and the Power of Congress over the Territories— Mr. Lincoln Nominated for 
United States Senator— His Speech before the Convention— Speech of Mr. Douglas 
at Chicago— His Misrepresentations of Mr. Lincoln— Hrs Views on the Dred Scott 
Decision— Mr. Lincoln's Reply— Illustrations of his Tact and Wit, 154 

CHAPTER XIII. 

CONTEST FOR THE SENATORSHIP. 

Mr. Lincoln proposes to Mr. Douglas a Joint Canvass of the State— Mr. Douglas de- 
clines, but proposes Joint Debates in seven Districts— Mr. Lincoln commences his 
Canvass of the State— His Reply to Douglas' Charge of Falsehood— Meeting of 
Douglas and Lincoln at Ottawa— Mr. Douglas' Charges, and Mr. Lincoln's Replies- 
Extract from Mr Lincoln's Speech— Their Meeting at Freeport— Lincoln's Reply 
to the Questions of Douglas— His Questions to Douglas— Answers of Douglas, and 
Lincoln's Rejoinder— Triumph o" Mr. Lincoln in the Popular Estimation— Objects 
of Mr. Lincoln in the Campaign— Mr. Douglas Re-elected Senator by the Legisla- 
ture, 179 



12 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

PREMONITIONS OF THE PRESIDENCY. 

Mr. Lincoln in the Winter of 185S-9 delivers a Lecture on the History of Inventions— 
His Popularity at the West — Letter to Dr. Canisius on Naturalization and Fusion — 
Reception by the State Convention at Decatur— The Presentation of the Rails from 
Macon County — Mr. Lincoln's Visit to Kansas — Extract from his Speech at Leaven- 
worth— He Visits Ohio— Speaks at Columbus and Cincinnati— Extract from his 
Speech at Cincinnati — Popular Sovereignty Doctrine of Mr. Douglas — Mr. Lincoln 
Visits New York — Speaks at Cooper Institute — William C. Bryant presides at the 
Meeting— Great Ability and Research displayed in the Speech— Extracts— Mr. Lin- 
coln Visits the Five Points Mission — Goes to Connecticut, and speaks at Hartford, 
New Haven, Meriden, &c. — His great Success as a Speaker — Anecdote related by 
Rev. J. P. Gulliver — Mr. Lincoln Visits his Son at Cambridge, and returns to Illi- 
nois, IDS 

CHAPTER XV. 

PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTIONS OF 1860. — MR. LINCOLN'S 

NOMINATION. 

State of the Country in 1860 — Southern Leaders Preparing for Secession — Knights of the 
Golden Circle— Church and Press at the South— Cobb and Floyd— Opinions at the 
North — Democratic Convention at Charleston — Mr. Yancey and the " Fire-eaters " — 
Division of the Convention— Both Factions Adjourn without making Nominations — 
National Constitutional Union Convention at Baltimore — Bell and Everett nominated 
— Breckinridge nominated by the Fire-eaters, and Douglas by the regular Deim i 
Convention — Mr. Lincoln's Story — Republican Convention at Chicago — Prominent 
Candidates forthe Nomination — The Party Platform — Balloting for President — Nom- 
ination of Lincoln — Enthusiasm of the Convention and of the Spectators — Disap- 
pointment of Mr. Seward's friends — Reception of the News at Springfield — The 
Committee of the Convention visit Mr. Lincoln — Speech of Mr. Ashmun, the Chair- 
man — Reply of Mr. Lincoln — His Letter Accepting the Nomination, 210 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE CAMPAIGN. — MR. LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 

Mr. Lincoln visited by Multitudes of People— Anecdotes — The Prospect for the Future 
—Mr. Lincoln's Views of the Duties of Christians and Ministers — His Conversation 
with Mr. Bateman — His Religious Faith and Convictions — Apparent Contradictions 
in Character — The Election of Mr. Lincoln Regarded as Certain — Course of the South- 
ern Leaders— Silence of Mr. Lincoln during the Campaign — Election of Mr. Lincoln 
— Popular Rejoicing at the North, and Exasperation at the South — Feeling of the 
Republican Party — Effect upon Mr. Lincoln — An Optical Illusion— Visit to Chicago 
— Anecdotes illustrating Mr. Lincoln's Love of Children — "Cabinet-making" — Mr. 
Lincoln's Views, 232 

CHAPTER XVII. 
mr. Lincoln's journey to Washington. 

Enormity of the Rebellion— Floyd— Black— Buchanan— Secession of several States- 
Forts and Arsenals seized — Position of Mr. Stanton and Mr. Holt — Attempts to con- 
ciliate the South— Condition of the Country— Mr. Lincoln leaves Springfield for 
Washington— His Farewell Speech— His Speech at Indianapolis— Journey to Cin- 
cinnati—Speeches at Cincinnati— Reception at Columbus— At Pittsburg— At Cleve- 
land—At Buffalo— At Albany— At Poughkeepsie— At New York— At Trenton— At 
Philadelphia — Plot against the President's Life — His Speech at Independence Ha'l 
—Reception at Harrisburg— Journey to Washington, 240 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 13 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE INAUGURATION. — OPENING OP THE WAR. 

The Procession— Reception of the Pre: ident by the Peopl< — The Inaugural Address — 
Cabinet Appointments— Rebel Sympathize] in Office- Mr. Lincoln's pacific Policy 
— Arrival of Rebel Commissioners in Washington— Surrender of Fort Sumter- I 

■ i the North— Proclamati in of the President- Response of Massachusetts— At- 
tack upon the Troops in Baltimore— Proclamation declaring a Blockade of Rebel 
Ports — Position of Virginia— Secession of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and 
Arkansas— Response to the Call of thePresident at the North and West — Mr. Doug- 
las's Visit to Mr. Lincoln — His Devotion to the Country — Speeches in Illinois — His 
Sickness and Death, 277 

CHAPTER XIX. • 
FIRST SUMMER OF THE WAR. 

Important Military Operations— Washington Relieved from Danger— Fortress Monroe 
Reinforced— The Government Works at Harper's Perry Blown Up and Abandoned 
— Occupation of Cairo— Rebel Congress assembled at Montgomery— Message of 
President Davis— President Lincoln's Call for additional Troops— Affairs in Missouri 
—General Butler's "Contraband" Order— Battle of Big Bethel— Death of Colonel 
Ellsworth— Battle of Bull Run— Agreement between Buckner and McClellan — Po- 
sition of the Government in reference to Slavery— The State of Western Virginia 
Organized — Battles of Laurel Hill and Rich Mountain — Special Session of Congress 
— Message of the President — The Majority of Congress sustain the Government — 
Mr. Crittenden's Resolution— Effect of the President's Inaugural and Message— Ap- 
pointment of General McClellan to the Command of the Army of the Potomac, 305 

CHAPTER XX. 
FOREIGN RELATIONS. FREMONT IN MISSOURI. 

Results of the Bull Run Battle — Foreign Relations — Seward's Instructions to Minister 
Adams— To our Ministers at other European Courts— Belligerent Rights of Rebels 
recognized by England and' France— Sympathy of England with the Rebellion — J. 
C. Fremont appointed Major-general — Battle of Wilson's Creek— Condition of Mis- 
souri — Fremont's Proclamation— Lincoln's Letter to Fremont — Modification of Fre- 
mont's Proclamation— Letter of Hon. Joseph Holt— General Fremont and Colonel 
Blair— Charges against Fremont— General Grant occupies Paducah, Kentucky— Sur- 
render of Colonel Mulligan— General Fremont takes the Field— He is superseded 
by General Hunter— General McClellan and the Army of the Potomac— General 
Butler captures the Hatteras Forts— Munson's Hill occupied by the Rebels— Battle 
of Ball's Bluff— Resignation of General Scott— Visit of the President and Cabinet 
to General Scott— Appointment of General McClellan to the Chief Command- 
Victory at Port Royal— Victories of General Grant in Missouri and General Nelson 
in Kentucky— Instructions to General Butler on the subject of Slavery, .... 324 

CHAPTER XXT. 
THE TRENT AFFAIR. THE GOVERNMENT AND SLAVERY. 

Capture of Mason and Slide]] by Captain Wilkes— Difficulties with England— Letter of 
Mr. Seward— Release of Mason and Slidell— Session of Congress— Message of the 
President— The Question of Slavery— Mr. Lincoln's Regard for the Constitution and 
the Laws— He Recommends Gradual Emancipation— Conference with Members of 
Congress from the Border States— Address of the President— The Confiscation Act 
—Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia— Letter of Mr. Greeley— Reply of 
the President— Mr. Cameron's Resignation— Appointment of Mr. Stanton— Mr. Lin- 
coln's Story, 330 



14 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

CAMPAIGNS OF 1862. 
General McClellan and the Army of the Potomac— Blockade of the Potomac— Order of 
the President for a grand Movement of the Armies of the Union — Order to the 
Army of the Potomac — General McClellan advises a different Plan from that pro- 
posed in the President's Order — Mr. Lincoln's Reply to McClellan — McClellan's 
Plan Adopted — Evacuation of Manassas— Orders of the President — Organization of 
Army Corps— Blenker's Division ordered to join Fremont — Banks to attack Jack- 
son — McDowell's Corps retained for the Defense of Washington — McClellan at York- 
town — McClellan complains of the Inadequacy of his Force — Correspondence be- 
tween McClellan and the Authorities at Washington — General Franklin's Division 
sent to General McClellan — Evacuation of Yorktown — Battle of Williamsburgh — 
Battle at West Point — Correspondence on the Subject of Army Corps— Mr Lincoln's 
"Little Story" — Capture of Norfolk — McClellan still Clamorous for Reinforcements 
— Defeat of Banks— Defeat of the Rebels at Hanover Court-House — Battle of Fair 
Oaks — Further Correspondence— The "Seven Days' Fight," and Retreat to James 
River — McClellan's Advice to the Government — The President at Harrison's Land- 
ing — The Army of the Potomac returns to Alexandria— Failure of McClellan to Re- 
inforce General Pope— The Rebels cross the Potomac— General McClellan appointed 
to the Command of the Army in Virginia — Battles of South Mountain and Antietam 
— General McClellan ordered to pursue the Rebels — Stuart's Raid — President's Let- 
ter to General McClellan — The Army across the Potomac— McClellan relieved of his 
Command — His Character— General Burnside appointed to the Command— Defeat 
at Fredericksburg— Capture of Roanoke Island — New Orleans surrendered to Gen- 
eral Butler— Military Affairs at the West, 35S 

CHAPTER XXm. 
PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 

Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation in pursuance of the Confiscation Act— Fernando Wood's 
Letters, advising Negotiation with the Rebels— The President's Replies— BIr. Lin- 
coln's Letter to Mr. Hodges — Mr. Carpenter's Account of the Emancipation Procla- 
mation—Cabinet Meeting— Opinions of Messrs. Chase, Blair and Seward— Mr. Bout- 
well's Account — The Preliminary Proclamation issued— Its Reception by the People 

General McClellan's Order to the Army— The Emancipation Proclamation of 

January 1st, 1S63— Proclamation suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus— Criticisms 
upon it— Circular Letter of the President on Sabbath-breaking in the Army— Letter 
to Governor Shepley, . 38 7 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
SUSPENSION OF HABEAS CORPUS. — THE DRAFT. — CAM- 
PAIGNS of 1863. 

Colonization Schemes of the President— Compensated Emancipation recommended— 
Bill for Enrolling and Drafting the Militia— Financial Measures of Congress— Opin- 
ions of the President— Western Virginia admitted to the Union— Representatives 
from Louisiana admitted to Congress— Peace Agitations— Course of Vallandigham 
of Ohio— His Arrest by General Burnside— Decision of Judge Leavitt— Vallandig- 
ham's Trial and Sentence— Sentence modified by the President— Letter of Gov- 
ernor Seymour— Vallandigham nominated for Governor by the Democratic Con- 
vention of Ohio— The Committee of the Convention visit the President— The Pres- 
ident's Reply to their Letter— Resolutions of the Albany Meeting— The President's 
Reply— Universal Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus— The Draft— Riots in 
New York— Course of Governor Seymour— Action of the President— Elections of 
1863— Letter from the Working Men of Manchester, England— The President's 
Reply— Mr. Lincoln's Letter to J. C. Conkling— Military Events of tha Year— Battle 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 15 



of Chancellorsvillc— Lee's Invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania— General Meade 
succeeds General Hooker in Command— Battle of Gettysburg— The President's 
Dispatch— Dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery— Speech of the President— Sur- 
render of Vicksburg and Port Hudson— Mr. Lincoln's Letter to General Grant — 
Rosecrans' Campaign in Tennessee— General Grant defeats Bragg, and drives Long- 
street from Tennessee— The President's Thanksgiving Proclamations— Difficulty 
among Union Men in Missouri— Mr. Lincoln's Opinion, 405 

CHAPTER XXV. 

PRIVATE LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 

Mr. Lincoln at the White House— His Relations to the Members of the Cabinet — His 
Health— His Love of Music— His Sympathy with the Soldiers— Anecdotes— His 
Charity for Human Weakness — His Severity towards Deliberate and Mercenary 
Crimes — Anecdotes— Mr. Lincoln's Religious Character— Death of his Son— Anec- 
dotes illustrating his Religious Character — His Interest in the Christian Commis- 
sion — Anecdotes — Visit of Two Hundred Members of the Christian Commission — 
Remarks of Mr. Stuart, and the President's Reply — Mr. Lincoln's Interview with 
Rev. J. T. Duryea — His Interest in the Efforts of Religious Men — His Habits at the 
White House — Narrative of a Lady who urged him to establish Military Hospitals 
in the Northern States — Injurious effects of Excessive Labor, Anxiety, and Loss 
of Sleep — Visits of Representatives of various Churches and Public Bodies — His 
Melancholy— Anecdotes— His Character, 429 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

SESSION OF CONGRESS, 1863-4. — SANITARY FAIRS. 

The President's Message — Proclamation of Amnesty — Supplementary and Explanatory 
Proclamation of March 24, 1864 — Failure of the Bill establishing a Bureau of Freed- 
men's Affairs, and of the Constitutional Amendment Abolishing Slavery — Repeal of 
the Fugitive Slave Law — Debate in the House of Representatives on the Expulsion 
of Long and Harris — Case of General F. P. Blair — U. S. Grant appointed Lieutenant- 
general— Sanitary Fair at Baltimore— At Philadelphia— At the Patent-office in Wash- 
ington — Visits and Speeches of the President— Order in reference to the Treatment 
of Colored Soldiers— Speech of the President on the Subject, 457 

CHAPTER XXVH. 

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. — RE-ELECTION OF 

MR. LINCOLN. 

Presidential Election of 18G4— State of the Country— Chase— Fremont— Convention at 
Cleveland— J. C. Fremont nominated for President— His Reasons for Accepting 
the Nomination— Withdrawal of his Name— Meeting m New York in Honor of Gen- 
eral Grant— Baltimore Convention— Platform— Mr. Lincoln nominated for President 
—His Speech accepting the Nomination— Letter to the Committee of the Conven- 
tion—Case of Arguelles— Congressional Plan of Reconstruction— The President's 
Proclamation— Manifesto of Senators Wade and Davis — Peace Negotiations — Mr. 
Greeley's Letters — Mr. Lincoln's Replies — Mr. Greeley at Niagara Falls — Consulta- 
tions with Clay and IToleombe — The President's Letter to H. J. Raymond — Demo- 
cratic Convention at Chicago — The Platform— McClellan and Pendleton Nominated 
— Vallandighatri — Mr. Blair Retires from the Cabinet — Mr. Dennison appointed in 
his Place — Mr. Lincoln's Speech on the Adoption of a Free Constitution in Mary- 
land—Protest against the Tennessee Test Oath— The President's Reply — Call for 
500,000 Men— President Lincoln Re-elected— His Letter to Mrs. Bixby, 467 



16 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

MILITARY EVENTS OF 1864. — RE-INAUGURATION OP 

MR. LINCOLN. 

Military Operations of 1864 — General Smith's Expedition from Memphis— Kilpatriek's 
Raid — The Red River Expedition — Surrender of Fort Pillow— Battles of the Wil- 
derness—General Butler at City Point — Siege of Petersburg— Sherman's Campaign 
in Georgia— Capture of Atlanta — Sherman's March for the Coast — Capture of Sa- 
vannah — General Thomas defeats Hood in Tennessee — Sheridan defeats Early :n 
the Shenandoah Valley — Rout of Price in Missouri — Changes in the Cabinet — Death 
of Chief-Justice Taney, and Appointment of Mr. Chase— Message of the President 
— Passage by Congress of the Amendment to the Constitution abolishing Slavery — 
Call for 300,000 Men— Peace Conference in Hampton Roads— Mr. Lincoln's "Story" 
— Close of President Lincoln's First Term — His Re-Inauguration— His Inaugural 
Address — Resignation of Secretary Fessenden— Appointment of Mr. MeCulloeh— 
Proclamation to Deserters — The Draft, 4.9'i 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

MILITARY EVENTS OE 1865. — CLOSE OF THE WAR. 

Sherman's March— Occupation of Columbia— Evacuation of Charleston — Battles of 
Averysboro and Bentonville— Occupation of Goldsboro— The President at City Point 
— Advance of the Army of the Potomac — Defeat of General Lee — Evacuation of Rich- 
mond—Its occupation by General Weitzel— Surrender of General Lee— The Pres- 
ident and the Kittens — The President visits Richmond — His Interview with Judge 
Campbell— Negotiations of General Sherman — Surrender of General.Johnston— End 
of the Rebellion — Joy of the People — Popularity of the President — His Speech at 
the White House, 506 

CHAPTER XXX. 

THE ASSASSINATION. 

Position of President Lincoln before the World— Plots for his Assassination— Letter of 
Mr. Seward — The President's Interview with Speaker Colfax — His attendance at 
Ford's Theater— Enthusiasm of the People on his Arrival— J. Wilkes Booth— His 
Arrangements for the Assassination— Perpetration of the Deed— Escape of Booth- 
Death of the President— Attack upon Mr. Seward and his Son— Profound Grief of 
the Nation— Funeral Services at Washington— Departure of the Funeral Train for 
Springfield— Ceremonies at Baltimore— At Harrisburg— At Philadelphia— At New 
York— At Albany— At Buffalo— At Cleveland— At Columbus— At Chicago— Funeral 
Services at Springfield — Foreign Expressions of Sympathy with the Nation, and 
with Mr. Lincoln's Family — Mr. Johnson succeeds to the Presidency — Large Re- 
wards offered for the apprehension of the Murderer— He is traced to his Hiding- 
place and Killed— Capture and Trial of his Associates— Closing Tribute to the Char- 
acter and Administration of Abraham Lincoln, 515 






¥1 



. 



^ 




LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



-CHAPTER I. 

The early life of Abraham Lincoln was a hard and humble 
backwoods and border life. As a boy and as a young man, 
he was not fond of wild sports and exciting adventures. It 
is doubtless true that the earlier years of many of his neigh- 
bors and companions would be more engaging to the pen of 
the biographer and the imagination of the reader, than his. 
His later career, his noble character, his association with the 
grandest and most important events of American history, have 
alone, or mainly, given significance and interest to his youth- 
ful experiences of hardship, the humble processes of his edu- 
cation, and his early struggles with the rough forces of nature 
among which he was born. The tree which rose so high, and 
spread its leaves so broadly, and bore such golden fruit, and 
then fell before the blast because it was so heavy and so high, 
has left its roots upturned into the same light that glorifies 
its branches, and discovered and made divine the soil from 
which it drew its nutriment. 

When Mr. Lincoln Avas nominated for the presidency of the 
United States in 18G0, it became desirable that a sketch of 
his life should be prepared and widely distributed ; but, upon 
being applied to for materials for this sketch, by the gentle- 
man who had undertaken to produce it,* he seemed oppressed 

*J. L. Scripps, Esq., of Chicago. 



18 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

with a sense of their tameness and lowliness, and the convic- 
tion that they could not be of the slightest interest to the 
American people. " My early history," said he, " is perfectly 
characterized by a single line of Gray's Elegy : 

'The short and simple annals of the poor.'" 

His judgment then was measurably just ; but events have set 
it aside, and endowed the humble details that seemed to him 
so common-place and mean, with a profound and tender in- 
terest. 

Abraham Lincoln was born in that part of Hardin 
County, Kentucky, now embraced by the lines of the recently 
formed county of Larue, on the 12th of February, 1809. A 
region more remarkably picturesque was at that time hardly 
to be found in all the neAvly-opened country of the West. 
Variegated and rolling in its surface, about two-thirds of it 
timbered and fertile, the remainder composed of barrens, sup- 
porting only black-jacks and post-oaks, and spreading into 
plains, or rising into knolls or knobs, and watered by beauti- 
ful and abundant streams, it was as attractive to the eye of 
the lover of nature as to the enterprise of the agriculturist 
and the passion of the hunter. Some of the knobs rising out 
of the barrens reach a considerable elevation, and are digni- 
fied by the name of mountains. "Shiny Mountain" is one 
of the most lovely of these, giving a view of the whole valley 
of the Nolin. A still larger knob is the " Blue Ball," from 
whose summit one may see, on a fair morning, the fog rising 
from the Ohio Elver, twenty miles away. 

In a rude log cabin, planted among these scenes, the sub- 
ject of this biography opened his eyes. The cabin was situ- 
ated on or near Nolin Creek, about a mile and a half from 
Hodgenville, the present county seat of Larue County. Here 
he spent the first year or two of his childhood, when he re- 
moved to a cabin on Knob Creek, on the road from Bardstown, 
Kentucky, to Nashville, Tennessee ; at a point three and a 
half miles south or southwest of Atherton's Ferry, (on the 
Rolling Fork,) and six miles from Hodgenville. It was in 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 19 

these two homes* that he spent the first seven years of his 
life ; but before saying anything of those years, it will be best. 
to tell how his parents found their way into the wilderness, 
and to record what is known of his family history. 

In 1709, Daniel Boone, at the head of a small and hardy 
party of adventurers, set out from his home on the Yadkin 
River, in South Carolina, to explore that part of Virginia 
which he then knew as " The Country of Kentucky." After 
participating in the most daring and dangerous adventures, 
and suffering almost incredible hardships, he returned, abund- 
antly rewarded with peltry, in 1771. Two years after this, 
he undertook to remove his family to the region which had 
entirely captivated his imagination ; but it was not until 1775 
that his purpose was accomplished. This brave and widely- 
renowned pioneer, with those who accompanied him and those 
who were attracted to the region by the reports which he had 
carried back to the Eastern settlements, lived a life of constant 
exposure to Indian warfare ; but danger seemed only to sharp- 
en the spirit of adventure, and to attract rather than repel 
immigration. 

Among those for whom "The Country of Kentucky" had 
its savage charms was Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of 
the President, then living in Rockingham County, Virginia. 
Why he should have left the beautiful and fertile valley of the 
Shenandoah for the savage wilds West of him cannot be 
known, but he only repeated the mystery of pioneer life — 
the greed for something newer and wilder and more danger- 
ous than that which surrounded him. His removal to Ken- 
tucky took place about 1780. Of the journey, we have no 
l-ecord ; but we know that at that date it must have been one 
of great hardship, as he was accompanied by a young and 
tender family. The spot upon which he built is not known, 

*Mf. Lincoln, in the manuscript record of Ms life dictated to J. G. 
Nicolay, makes mention of but one home in Kentucky. Scripps' me- 
moir, also gathered from Mr. Lincoln's lips, is silent on the subject; but 
Barrett's Campaign Life of Lincoln gives the statement circumstantially, 
and is probably correct. 



20 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

though it is believed to have been somewhere on Floyd's 
Creek, in what is now Bullitt County. Hardly more of his 
history is preserved than that which relates to his death. In 
1784, while at work in the field, at a distance from his cabin, 
he was stealthily approached by an Indian, and shot dead. 

The care of five helpless children was, by this murder, 
thrown upon his widow. She subsequently removed to a 
place now embraced within the limits of Washington County, 
and there she reared, in such rude ways as necessity pre- 
scribed, her little brood. Three of these children, sons, were 
named in the order of their birth, Mordecai, Josiah and 
Thomas. The two daughters were named respectively Mary 
and Nancy. Mordecai remained in Kentucky until late in 
life, but a short time before his death, removed to Hancock 
County, Illinois, where several of his descendants still reside. 
Josiah, the second son, removed while a young man to what 
is now Harrison County, Indiana. Thomas, the third son, 
was the father of Abraham Lincoln, the illustrious subject of 
this biography. Mary Lincoln was married to Ralph Crume, 
and Nancy to William Brumfield. The descendants of these 
women still reside in Kentucky. All these children were 
probably born in Virginia, — Thomas, in 1778, — so that he 
was only about two years old when his father emigrated. 

Tracing the family still further, we find that Abraham, the 
emigrant, had four brothers : Isaac, Jacob, John and Thomas. 
The descendants of Jacob and John are supposed to be still 
in Virginia. Isaac emigrated to the region Avhere Virginia, 
North Carolina and Tennessee unite, and his descendants are 
there. Thomas went to Kentucky, probably later than his 
brother Abraham, where he lived many years, and where he 
died. His descendants went to Missouri. 

Further back than this it is difficult to go. The most that 
is known, is, that the Lincolns of Eockingham County, Vir- 
ginia, came, previous to 1752, from Berks County, Pennsyl- 
vania. Where the Lincolns of Berks County came from, no 
record has disclosed. They are believed to have been Quakers, 
but whether they were an original importation from Old Eng- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN'. 21 

land, under tlic auspices of William Penn, or a pioneer off- 
shoot from the Lincolns of New England, does not appear. 
There is the strongest presumptive evidence that the Penn- 
sylvania and New England Lincolns were identical in their 
family blood. The argument for this identity rests mainly 
ui>i>n the coincidences which the Christian names of the two 
families present. Three Lincolns who came from Hingham, 
in England, and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, between 
1633 and 1637, bore the Christian name of Thomas. Anoth- 
er bore the name of Samuel, and he had three sons: Daniel, 
Mordecai and Thomas. Mordecai was the father of Morde- 
cai, who was born in 1686. He was also the father of Abra- 
ham, born in 1689. About 1750, there were two Mordecai 
Lincolns in the town of Taunton.* Here we have the three 
names : Mordecai, Thomas and Abraham, in frequent and fa- 
miliar family use. Passing to the Pennsylvania family, we 
find that among the taxable inhabitants of Exeter, Berks 
County, Pennsylvania, there were, soon after 1752, Mordecai 
and Abraham Lincoln ; that Thomas Lincoln was living in 
Reading as early as 1757, and that Abraham Lincoln, of 
Berks County, was in various public offices in the state from 
1782 to 1790.f 

It has already been seen that these names have been per- 
petuated among the later generations of the Pennsylvania 
Lincolns, and that the three names — Abraham, Mordecai 
and Thomas — were all embraced in the family out of which 
the President sprang. The argument thus based upon the 
identity of favorite family names (and one of those quite an 
unusual name,) is very strong in establishing identity of 
blood, though, of course, it is not entirely conclusive. It is 
sufficient, certainly, in the absence of a reliable record, to 
make the theory plausible which transfers a Quaker from the 
unfriendly soil of Massachusetts to the paradise of Quakers 
in Pennsylvania. It is highly probable that an exceptional 

*Rev. Elias Nason's Eulogy before the X. E. Historic-Geneological 
Society, at Boston, May 3, 186f). 
fRupp's History of Berks and Lebanon Counties, Pennsylvania. 



22 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN'. 

Quaker among the Massachusetts Puritan family went, with 
other New Englanders, to Berks County in Pennsylvania, and 
that the blood which has given to New England a considera- 
ble number of most honorable names, has given to the nation 
one of the noblest that adorn its annals. 

Thomas Lincoln, the father of the President, was made, by 
the early death of his father and the straitened circumstances 
of his mother, a wandering, laboring, ignorant boy. He 
grew up without any education. He really never learned 
anything of letters except those which composed his own 
name. This he could write clumsily, but legibly, and this he 
did write without any knowledge of the names and powers of 
the letters which composed it. While a lad not fully grown, 
he passed a year as a hired field hand on Wataga, a branch 
of the Ilolston River, in the employ of his Uncle Isaac. "With- 
out money or the opportunity to acquire it, all the early years 
of his life were passed in labor for others, at such wages as 
lie could command, or in hunting the game with which the re- 
gion abounded. It was not until he had reached his twenty- 
eighth year that he found it practicable to settle in life, and 
make for himself a home. He married Nancy Hanks, in 
180G. She was born in Virginia, and was probably a relative 
of one of the early immigrants into Kentucky. He took her to 
the humble cabin he had prepared for her, already alluded to as 
the birth-place of the President, and within the first few years 
of her married life, she bore him three children. The first 
was a daughter named Sarah, who married when a child, and 
died many years ago, leaving no issue. The third was a son, 
(Thomas,) who died in Infancy. The second was Abraham, 
who, born into the humblest abode, under the humblest circum- 
stances, raised himself by the force of native gifts of heart and 
brain, and by the culture and power achieved by his own will 
and industry, under the blessing of a Providence which he 
always recognized, to sit in the highest place in the land, and 
to preside over the destinies of thirty millions of people. 

From such materials as are readily accessible, let us paint 
a picture of the little family. Thomas Lincoln, the father, 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LTXCOI/N*. 23 

was a well built, sinewy man, about five feet ten and a half 
inches high, dressed in the humble garb which his poverty 

compelled and the rude art of the time and locality produced. 
Though a rover by habit and native tastes, he was not a man 
of enterprise. He was a good-natured man, a man of un- 
doubted integrity, but inefficient in making his way in the 
world, and improvident of the slender means at his command. 
He was a man, however, whom everybody loved, and who 
held the warm affection of his eminent son throughout his 
life. He attributed much of his hard fortune to his lack of 
education, and in one thing, at least, showed himself more 
wisely provident than the majority of his neighbors. He de- 
termined, at any possible sacrifice, to give his children the 
best education that the schools of the locality afforded. 

Mrs. Lincoln, the mother, was evidently a woman out of 
place among those primitive surrounding.-. She was five feet, 
five inches high, a slender, pale, sad and sensitive woman, 
with much in her nature that was truly heroic, and much that 
shrank from the rude life around her. A great man never 
drew his infant life from a purer or more womanly bosom than 
her own ; and Mr. Lincoln always looked back to her with 
an unspeakable affection. Long after her sensitive heart and 
weary hands had crumbled into dust, and had climbed to life 
again in forest flowers, he said to a friend, with tears in his 
eyes : " All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel 
mother — blessings on her memory ! " 

Here was the home and here were its occupants, all hum- 
ble, all miserably poor ; yet it was a home of love and of 
virtue. Both father and nfother were religious persons, and 
sought at the earliest moment to impress the minds of their 
children with religious truth. The mother, though not a 
ready writer, could read. Books were scarce, but occasion- 
ally an estray was caught and eagerly devoured. Abraham 
and his sister often sat at her feet to hear of scenes and deeds 
that roused their young imaginations, and fed their hungry 
minds. 

Schools in Kentucky were, in those days, scarce and very 



24 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

poor. Nothing more than instruction in the rudiments of 
education was attempted. Zachariah Einey was Abraham's 
first teacher. Einey was a Catholic, and though the Protest- 
ant children in his charge were commanded, or permitted, to 
retire when any of his peculiar religious ceremonies or exer- 
cises were in progress, Mr. Lincoln always entertained a 
pleasant and grateful memory of him. He began his attend- 
ance upon Mr. Biney's school when he was in his seventh 
year, but could hardly have continued it beyond a period of 
two or three months. His next teacher was Caleb Hazel, a 
line young man, whose school he attended for about three 
months. The boy was diligent, and actually learned to write 
an intelligible letter during this period. 

If the schools of the region were rude and irregular, its 
religious institutions were still more so. Public religious 
worship was observed in the neighborhood only at long inter- 
vals, and then under the charge of roving preachers, who, 
ranging over immense tracts of territory, and living on their 
horses and in the huts of the settlers, called the people to- 
gether under trees or cabin-roofs, and spoke to them simply 
of the great truths of Christianity. The preachers themselves 
were peculiar persons, made so by the peculiarity of their cir- 
cumstances and pursuits. Por many years, Abraham Lincoln 
never saw a church ; but he heard Parson Elkin preach. At 
intervals of several months, the good parson held meetings in 
the neighborhood. He was a Baptist, and Thomas and Nancy 
Lincoln were members of that communion. Abraham's first 
ideas of public speech were gathered from the simple ad- 
dresses of this humble and devoted itinerant, and the boy 
gave evidence afterwards, as we shall see, that he remembered 
him with interest and affection. 

When inefficient men become very uncomfortable, they arc 
quite likely to try emigration as a remedy. A good deal of 
what is called " the pioneer spirit " is simply a spirit of shift- 
less discontent. Possibly there was something of this spirit 
in Thomas Lincoln. It is true, at least, that when Abraham 
was about seven years old, his father became possessed with 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 25 

the desire to sell his little home, and remove to another, in 
some fairer wilderness. It is probable, also, that he did not 
like to rear his children in Kentucky, lie had been wise 
enough to appreciate the advantages of education to his chil- 
dren, and it is quite likely that he shrank from seeing them 
grow up in a community cursed with slavery. The state 
having outgrown, with marvelous rapidity, its ruder condi- 
tions, and become populous and powerful, was already the 
home of an institution which branded labor with disgrace, 
and made the position of the poor whites a hopeless one. 
lie could see nothing in the future, for himself or his boy, but 
labor by the side of the negro, and degradation in his pres- 
ence and companionship. 

Mr. Lincoln himself never attributed his father's desire to 
remove from Kentucky to his dislike of slavery, as a principal 
motive. Kentucky, more than most of the new states, was 
cursed with defective land-titles. Daniel Boone himself, with 
hundreds of others wdio had shared with him the dangers of 
pioneer life, was dispossessed of nearly all his lands, after hav- 
ing lived upon them for years, and rendered them very valu- 
able by improvements. It was mainly to this difficulty, of 
o-cttino- a valid title to land, that Abraham Lincoln attributed 
his father's desire and determination to remove to another 
state. 

Thomas Lincoln found a purchaser, at last, for his home. 
He bartered it away for ten barrels of whisky and twenty 
dollars in money, the whole representing the sum of three 
hundred dollars, his price for the place.* After building i: 
flat-boat and launching it upon the Rolling Fork, he loaded 
it with his stock of whisky, ami all the heavier household Avares 
of which he was possessed, pushed off alone, and floated safely 
down to the Ohio River. Here he met with an accident — a 
wreck, indeed. The flat-boat was upset, and two-thirds of his 
whisky and many of his housekeeping utensils and farming 
and other tools were lost. Meeting with assistance, his boat 

♦William M. Thayer's "Pioneer Boy," a singularly faithful statement 
of the early experiences of Abraham Lincoln. 



20 LIFE OS ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

was righted, and everything saved that it -was found practica- 
ble to gather from the bottom of the river. Landing at 
Thompson's Ferry, he procured carriage for his goods about 
eighteen miles into Spencer County, Indiana, where, in almost 
an unbroken wilderness, he determined to settle. Leaving 
his goods in. the care of a settler, he returned to Thompson's 
Ferry, and then, on foot, took as nearly as possible a bee-line 
for home, where he arrived in due time. It was probably 
during the absence of the father on his preliminary trip that 
the mother paid her last tribute of affection to the little one 
she had buried, by visiting its grave, in company with her 
living boy — an incident which he remembered with tender 
interest. 

This voyage was made in the autumn of 1816, when Abra- 
ham was in his eighth year, and it was followed by me im- 
mediate removal of the whole family. The journey to the new 
home was made overland, upon three horses which carried in 
packs the bedding, wardrobe and all the lighter effects of the 
family. The humble cavalcade occupied seven days in the 
journey. At the end of it, the emigrants met with neighborly 
assistance in the erection of a dwelling, and were soon housed 
and ready to begin life anew. 

It must not be inferred from the character of the material 
which Mr. Lincoln received, in principal, as the payment for 
his little homestead in Kentucky, and transferred to his new 
home in Indiana, that he was addicted to the vice of strong 
drink. In those days, alcoholic liquors were in general use 
among the settlers, not only as a beverage, but as a remedial 
agent in the treatment of the diseases peculiar to the new set- 
tlements of the West. The same liquors were used with the 
same freedom among all classes at the East, at that date, with- 
out a thought of evil. Mr. Lincoln supposed he was receiv- 
ing a commodity which would be of great value to him in the 
new regions of Indiana, where distillation had not been at- 
tempted ; and he doubtless found a ready market for the frac- 
tion of the cargo which he had saved from the river. 



CHAPTER II. 

The point at which the Lincoln family settled in Indiana 
was not far from the present town of Gentryville. The cam- 
paign biographers of Abraham attribute to him some valuable 
service with the ax, both in building the cabin and in clear- 
ing the forest around it ; but, at the age of seven, he could 
hardly have rendered much assistance in these offices. We 
are told that he had an ax ; and there is no doubt that he 
learned at an early age to use it effectually. Indeed, his 
muscles were formed and hardened by this exercise, continued 
through all the years of his young manhood. It has already 
been stated that he had no taste for the sports of the forest ; 
but he made an early shot, with a result that must have sur- 
prised him and his. family. While yet a child, lie saw through 
a crack in the cabin a flock of wild turkeys, feeding. He 
ventured to take down his father's rifle, and, firing through 
the crack, killed one of them. This was the largest game 
upon which he ever pulled trigger, his brilliant success having 
no power to excite in him the passion for hunting. 

Among the most untoward circumstances, Thomas Lincoln 
embraced every opportunity to give Abraham an education. 
At different periods, all of them brief, he attended the neigh- 
borhood schools that were opened to him. Andrew Crawford 
taught one of these, a Mr. Sweeney another, and Azel W. 
Dorsey another, the last of whom lived to see his humble 
pupil a man of eminence, and to congratulate him upon his 
elevation. One year, however, would cover all the time spent 



2S LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLX. 

by him with his two Kentucky teachers, and the three whose 
schools lie attended in Indiana ; and all the school education 
of his life was embraced by the limits of this one year. 

It is very difficult for any one bred in the older communi- 
ties of the country to appreciate the extreme humility of border 
life, the meagerness and meanness of its household appoint- 
ments, and the paucity of its stimulants to mental growth and 
social development. The bed in which the elder Lincolns, 
and, on very cold nights, the little Lincolns, slept, during their 
first years in Indiana, was one whose rudeness will give a key 
to the kind of life which they lived there. The head and one 
side of the bedstead were formed by an angle of the cabin 
itself. The bed-post standing out into the room was a single 
crotch, cut from the forest. Laid upon this crotch were the 
ends of two hickory sticks, whose other extremities were mor- 
ticed into the logs, the two sides of the cabin and the two rails 
embracing a quadrilateral space of the required dimensions. 
This was bridged by slats " rived " from the forest log, and on 
the slats was laid a sack filled with dried leaves. This was, 
in reality, the bed of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln ; and into 
it, when the skins hung at the cabin doorway did not keep out 
the cold, Abraham and his sister crept for the warmth which 
their still ruder couch upon the ground denied them. 

The lot of the little family, already sadly dark, was rendered 
inexpressibly gloomy at an early day by an event which made 
a profound impression upon the mind of the boy — an impres- 
sion that probably never wore away during all the eventful 
years that followed. His delicate mother bent to the dust 
under the burden of life which circumstances had imposed 
upon her. A quick consumption seized her, and her life went 
out in the flashing fevers of her disease. The boy and his 
sister were orphans, and the humble home in the wilderness 
was desolate. Her death occurred in 1818, scarcely two years 
after her removal to Indiana, and when Abraham was in his 
tenth year. They laid her to rest under the trees near the 
cabin, and, sitting on her grave, the little boy wept his irre- 
parable loss. There were probably none but the simplest 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN. . 29 

ceremonies at her burial, and neither father nor son was content 
to part with her without a formal Christian tribute to her 
worth and memory. Both thought of the good Parson El kin 
whom they had left in Kentucky; and Abraham's skill in 
writing was brought into use in addressing to him a message. 
His imperfect penmanship had been acquired partly in the 
schools he had attended, and partly by practice in the sand 
and on the barks of trees — on anything and with any instru- 
ment by which letters might be formed. 

Several months after Mrs. Lincoln died, Abraham wrote a 
letter to Parson Elkin, informing him of his mother's death, 
and begging him to come to Indiana, and preach her funeral 
sermon. It was a great favor that he thus asked of the poor 
preacher. It would require him to ride on horseback nearly 
a hundred miles through the wilderness ; and it is something 
to be remembered to the humble itinerant's honor that he was 
willing to pay this tribute of respect to the woman who had 
so thoroughly honored him and his sacred office. He replied 
to Abraham's invitation, that he woidd preach the sermon on 
a certain future Sunday, and gave him liberty to notify the 
neighbors of the promised service. 

As the appointed day approached, notice was given to the 
whole neighborhood, embracing every family within twenty 
miles. Neighbor carried the notice to neighbor. It Avas scat- 
tered from every little school. There was probably not a 
family that did not receive intelligence of the anxiously antic- 
ipated event. 

On a bright Sabbath morning, the settlers of the region 
started for the cabin of the Lincolns ; and, as they gathered 
in, they presented a picture worthy the pencil of the worthiest 
painter. Some came in carts of the rudest construction, their 
wheels consisting of sections of the huge boles of forest trees, 
and every other member the product of the ax and auger; 
some came on horseback, two or three upon a horse ; others 
came in wagons drawn by oxen, and still others came on foot. 
Two hundred persons in all Averc assembled when Parson Elkin 
came out from the Lincoln cabin, accompanied by the little 



SO • LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

family, and proceeded to the tree under which the precious 
dust of a -wile and mother was buried. The congregation, 
seated upon stumps and logs around the grave, received the 
preacher and the mourning family in a silence broken only by 
the songs of birds, and the murmur of insects, or the creaking 
cart of some late comer. Taking his stand at the foot of the 
grave, Parson Elkin lifted his voice in prayer and sacred song, 
and then preached a sermon. The occasion, the eager faces 
around him, and all the sweet influences of the morning, inspired 
him with an unusual fluency and fervor; and the flickering 
sunlight, as it glanced through the wind-parted leaves, caught 
many a tear upon the bronzed cheeks of his auditors, Avhile 
father and son were overcome by the revival of their great 
grief. He spoke of the precious Christian Avoman who had 
gone with the warm praise which she deserved, and held her 
up as an example of true womanhood. 

Those who knew the tender and reverent spirit of Abraham 
Lincoln later in life, will not doubt that he returned to his 
cabin-home deeply impressed by all that he had heard. It 
was the rounding up for him of the influences of a Christian 
mother's life and teachings. It recalled her sweet and patient 
example, her assiduous efforts to inspire him with pure and 
noble motives, her simple instructions in divine truth, her de- 
voted love for him, and the motherly offices she had rendered 
him during all his tender years. His character was planted in 
this Christian mother's life. Its roots were fed by this Chris- 
tian mother's love ; and those who have wondered at the truth- 
fulness and earnestness of his mature character, have only to re- 
member that the tree Avas true to the soil from which it sprang. 

Abraham, at an early day, became a reader. Every book 
upon which he could lay his hands he read. He became a 
Avriter also. 'The majority of the settlers around him AA r ere 
entirely illiterate, and Avhen it became known that Mr. Lin- 
coln's boy could Avrite, his seiwices Avere in frequent request 
by them in sending epistolary messages to their friends. In 
the composition of these letters his early habits of putting 
the thoughts of others as Avell as his OAvn into language Avere 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Si 

formed. The exercise was, indeed, as good as a school to 
him ; for there is no better discipline, for any mind, than that 
of giving definite expression to thought in language. Much 
of his subsequent power as a writer and speaker was undoubt- 
edly traceable to this early discipline. 

The books which Abraham had the early privilege of read- 
ing were the Bible, much of which he could repeat, iEsop's 
Fables, all of which he could repeat, Pilgrim's Progress, 
Weans' Life of Washington, and a Life of ilenry Clay which 
his mother had managed to purchase for him. Subsequently 
he read the Life of Franklin and Ramsay's Life of Wash- 
ington. In these books, read and re-read, he found meat 
for his hungry mind. The Holy Bible, ^Esop and John Bun- 
van : — could three better books have been chosen for him 
from the richest library? For those who have witnessed the 
dissipating effects of many books upon the minds of modern 
children it is not hard to believe that Abraham's poverty of 
books was the wealth of his life. These three books did much 
to perfect that which his mother's teachings had begun, and 
to form a character which for quaint simplicity, earnestness, 
truthfulness and purity has never been surpassed among the 
historic personages of the world. The Life of Washington, 
while it gave to him a lofty example of patriotism, incidentally 
conveyed to his mind a general knowledge of American his- 
tory ; and the Life of ilenry Clay spoke to him of a living 
man who had risen to political and professional eminence from 
cii'cumstances almost as humble as his own. The latter book 
undoubtedly did much to excite his taste for politics, to kindle 
his ambition, and to make him a warm admirer and partizan 
of Ilenry Clay. Abraham must have been very young when 
he read Weems' Life of Washington, and we catch a glimpse 
of his precocity in the thoughts which it excited, as revealed 
by himself in a speech made to the New Jersey Senate, while 
on his way to Washington to assume the duties of the Presi- 
dency. Alluding to his early reading of this book, he says : 
" I remember all the accounts there given of the battle fields 
and struggles for the liberties of the country, and none fixed 



32 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

themselves upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle 
here ;it Trenton, New Jersey. * * * I recollect thinking then, 
boy even though I was, that there must have been something more 
than common that those men struggled for '." Even at this age, 
he was not only an interested reader of the story, but a stu- 
dent of motives. 

Ramsay's Life of Washington was borrowed from his teach- 
er, Andrew Crawford, and an anecdote connected with it illus- 
trates Abraham's conscientiousness and characteristic honesty. 
The borrowed book was left unguardedly in an open window. 
A shower coming on, it was wet and nearly ruined. Abraham 
carried it to Mr. Crawford in great grief and alarm, and, after 
explaining the accident, offered to pay for the book in labor. 
Mr. Crawford accepted the proposal, and the lad "pulled fod- 
der" three days to pay, not for the damages, but for the book 
itself, which thus became one of his own literary treasures. 

In the autumn or early winter of 1819, somewhat more 
than a year after the death of Airs. Lincoln, Abraham passed 
into the care of a step-mother. His father married and brought 
to his home. in Indiana, Mrs. Sally Johnston, of Elizabcthtown, 
Kentucky, undoubtedly one of his old acquaintances. She 
brought with her three children, the fruit of her previous 
marriage ; but she faithfully fulfilled her assumed maternal 
duties to Thomas Lincoln's children. The two families grew 
up in harmony together, and the many kind offices' which she 
performed for Abraham were gratefully returned then and in 
after years by him. She still survives, having seen her young 
charge rise to be her own ruler, and the ruler of the nation, 
and to fall amid expressions of grief from the whole civilized 
world. 

As Abraham grew up, he became increasingly helpful in all 
the work of the farm, often going out to labor by the day for 
hire. Abundant evidence exists that he was regarded by the 
neighbors as being remarkable, in many respects, above the lads 
of his own age, with whom he associated. In physical strength 
and sundry athletic feats, he was the master of them all. 
Never quarrelsome or disposed to make an unpleasant show 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM I. CCLN. 

of his prowess, lie was ready to help all who were in need of 

help, to do their errands, write their letters, and lighten their 

burdens. 

An instance of his practical humanity at this early period 

of his life may be recorded. One evening, while returning 
from a "raising" in his wide neighborhood, with a number of 
companions, he discovered a straying horse, with saddle and 
bridle upon him. The horse was recognized as belonging to 
a man who was accustomed to excess in drink, and it was sus- 
pected at once that the owner was not far off. A short search 
only was necessary to confirm the suspicions of the young 
men. The poor drunkard was found in a perfectly helpless 
condition, upon the chilly ground. Abraham's companions 
urged the cowardly policy of leaving him to his fate, but young 
Lincoln would not hear to the proposition. At his request, 
the miserable sot was lifted to his shoulders, and he actually 
carried him eighty rods to the nearest house, fending word 
to his father that he should not be back that night, with the 
reason for his absence, he attended and nursed the man until 
the morning, and had the pleasure of believing that he had 
saved his life. 

That Abraham Lincoln was entirely content with the hum- 
drum life he was living* or the prospects which it presented 
to him, is not probable. He had caught glimpses of a life of 
greater dignity and significance. Echoes from the great: 
centers of civilization had reached his ears. When he was 
eighteen years old he conceived the project of building a little 
boat, and taking the produce of the Lincoln farm down the 
river to a market. He had learned the use of tools, and pos- 
sessed considerable mechanical talent, as will appear in some 
other acts of his life. Of the voyage and its results we have 
no knowledge, but an incident occurred before starting which 
he related in later life to his Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, 
that made a very marked and pleasant impression upon his 
memory. As he stood at the landing, a steamer approached, 
coming down the river. At the same time two passengers 
came to the river's bank who wished to be taken out to the 



34 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN'. 

packet with their luggage. Looking among the boats at the 
landing, they singled out Abraham's, and asked him to scull 
them to the steamer. This he did, and after seeing them and 
their trunks on board, he had the pleasure of receiving upon 
the bottom of his boat, before he shoved off, a silver half dol- 
lar from each of his passengers. " I could scarcely believe 
my eyes," said Mr. Lincoln, in telling the story. " You may 
think it was a very little thing," continued he, " but it was a 
most important incident in my life. I could scarcely believe 
that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day. 
The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a more 
hopeful and confident being from that time." 

A little incident occurred during these hard years in Indiana 
which illustrates the straits to which the settlers were subjected. 
At one time Abraham was obliged to take his grist upon the 
back of his father's horse, and go fifty miles to get it ground. 
The miU itself was very rude, and driven by horse-power. 
The customers were obliged to wait their turn, without refer- 
ence to their distance from home, and then use their own 
horses to propel the machinery. On one occasion, Abraham, 
having arrived at his turn, fastened his mare to the lever, and 
was following her closely upon her rounds, when, urging her 
with a switch, and " clucking " to her in the usual way, he 
received a kick from her which prostrated him, and made him 
insensible. With the first instant of returning consciousness, 
he finished the cluck, which he had commenced when he re- 
ceived the kick, (a fact for the psychologist) and with the 
next he probably thought about getting home, where he arrived 
at last, battered, but ready for further service. 

At the age of nineteen, Abraham made his second essay in 
navigation, and this time caught something more than a glimpse 
of the great world in which he was destined to play so import- 
ant a part. A trading neighbor applied to him to take charge 
of a flat-boat and its cargo, and, in company with his own son, 
to take it to the sugar plantations near New Orleans. The 
entire business of the trip was placed In Abraham's hands. 
The fact tells its own story touching the young man's reputa- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. <^'> 

tion for capacity and integrity. He had never made the trip, 
knew nothing of the journey, was unaccustomed to business 
transactions, had never been much upon the river; hut his 
tact, ability and honesty were so far trusted that the trader 
was willing to risk his cargo and his son in his care.. 

The delight with which the youth swung loose from the 
shore upon his clumsy craft, with the prospect of a ride of 
eighteen hundred miles before him, and a vision of the great 
world of which he had read and thought so much, may In- 
imagined. At this time, he had become a very tall and pow- 
erful young man. He had reached the remarkable height of 
six feet and four inches, a length of trunk and limb remarkable 
even among the tall race of pioneers to which he belonged. 

The incidents of a trip like this were not likely to be ex- 
citing but there were many social chats with settlers and 
hunters along the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi, and there 
was much hailing of similar craft afloat. Arriving at a sugar 
plantation somewhere between Natchez and New Orleans, the 
boat was pulled in, and tied to the shore for purposes of trade ; 
and here an incident occurred which was sufficiently exciting, 
and one which, in the memory of recent events, reads some- 
what strangely. Here seven negroes attacked the life of the 
future liberator of their race, and it is not improbable that 
some of them have lived to be emancipated by his proclamation, 
Nio-ht had fallen, and the two tired voyagers had lain down 
upon their hard bed for sleep. Hearing a noise on shore, 
Abraham shouted: "Who's there?" The" noise continuing, 
and no voice replying, lie sprang to his feet, and saw seven 
negroes, evidently bent on plunder. Abraham guessed the 
errand at once, and seizing a hand-spike, rushed toward them, 
and knocked one into the water the moment that he touched 
the boat. The second, third and fourth who leaped on board 
were served in the same rough way. Seeing that they were 
not likely to make headway in their thieving enterprise, the 
remainder turned to flee. Abraham and his companion grow- 
ing excited and warm with their work, leaped on shore, and 
followed them. Both were too swift of foot for the negroes, 



36 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

an d all of them received a severe pounding. They returned 
to their boat jusl as the others escaped from the water, but the 
latter fled into the darkness as fast as their feet could carry 
them. Abraham and his fellow in the fight were both injured, 
but not disabled. Not being armed, and unwilling to wait until 
the negroes had received reinforcement?, they cut adrift, and 
floating down a mile or two, tied up to the bank again, and 
watched and waited for the morning. 

The trip was brought at length to a successful end. The 
cargo, or "load," as they called it, was all disposed of for 
money, the boat itself sold for lumber, and the young men 
retraced the passage, partly, at least, on shore and on foot, 
occupying several weeks in the difficult and tedious journey. 

Working thus for others, receiving only the humblest wages 
in return, reading every book upon which he could lay his 
hand, pursuing various studies in the intervals of toil with 
special attention to arithmetic, discharging his filial duties at 
home and upon his father's farm, picking up bits of informa- 
tion from neighbors and new-comers, growing in wisdom and 
practical sagacity, and achieving a place in the good will and 
respect of all with whom he came in contact, the thirteen 
years of his life in Indiana wore away. With a constitution 
as firm and flexible as whip-cord, he had arrived at his majority. 
The most that could be said of his education was that he could 
"read, writs and cipher." lie knew nothing of English 
grammar. He could not read a sentence in any tongue but 
his own ; but all that he knew, he knew thoroughly. It had 
all been assimilated, and was a part not only of his inalienable 
is but of himself. While acquiring, he had learned 
to construct, organize, express. There was no part of his 
knowledge that was not an clement of his practical power. 
He had not been made by any artificial process ; he had grown. 
Holding within himself the germ of a great life, he had reached 
out his roots like the trees among which he was reared, and 
drawn into himself such nutriment as the soil afforded. His 
individuality was developed and nurtured by the process. 
He had become a i . r God's pattern, and not a machine 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 37 

after man's pattern ; lie was a child of Nature and not a I 
of art. And this was the secret of all his subscquenl intel- 
lectual successes. He succeeded because he had himself and 
all his resources completely in hand ; for he was not, and 
never became an educated man, in the common meaning of that 
phrase. lie could train all his force upon any point, and it 
mattered little whether the direction was an accustomed one 
or otherwise. 

It was a happy thing- for the young man that, living among 
the roughest of rough men, many of whom were addicted to 
coarse vices, he never acquired a vice. There was no taint 
upon his moral character. jS t o stimulant ever entered his lips, 
no profanity ever came forth from them, which defiled the 
man. Loving and telling a story better than any one around 
him, except his father, from whom he inherited the taste and 
talent, a great talker and a warm lover of social intercoi 
good-natured under all circumstances, his honesty and truth- 
fulness well known and thoroughly believed in, he was as 
popular throughout all the region where he lived as he became 
afterward throughout the nation. 



CHAPTER III. 

THOMAS "LINCOLN had raised his little family; and the 
children of his wife were also grown to woman's and man's 
estate. There had indeed been three weddings in the family. 
Sarah Lincoln, the daughter, was married to Aaron Grigsby, 
a young man living in the vicinity, and two of Mrs. Lincoln's 
daughters had left the Lincoln cabin for new homes. The 
sister of Abraham had been married but a year, however, 
when she died, and thus a new grief was inflicted upon the 
sensitive heart of her brother. Her marriage occurred in 
1822 ; and as she was born in 1808, she could have been only 
fourteen years old when she became a wife. It is not remark- 
able that the child found an early grave. 

During the last two years of their residence in Indiana, a 
general discontent had seized upon the family concerning their 
location. The region at that day was an unhealthy one, and 
there could be no progress in agricultural pursuits without a 
great outlay of labor in clearing away the heavy timber which 
burdened all the fertile soil. At the same time, reports were 
rife of the superior qualities of the prairie lands of Illinois. 
There, by the sides of the water-courses, and in the edges of 
the timber, were almost illimitable farms that called for nothing 
but the plough and hoe to make them immediately productive. 
Dennis Hanks, a relative of the first Mrs. Lincoln, was sent 
to the new region to rcconnoiter, and returned with a glowing 
account of the new country. It is probable that if Thomas 
Lincoln had been alone lie would have remained at the old 










-esshf for SolZa 



T [.lEJEAMJLlTlL©^! 1'.', 

IN ILLINOIS. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. SO 

homo, Imt there was young life to be taken into the account. 
The new sons-in-law of Airs. Lincoln, as well as Abraham, 

were doubtless averse to repeating the severe experiences of 
the father, and with fresh life and enterprise desired a new and 
more inviting field of operations. 

Mr. Lincoln sold out his squatter's claim in Indiana, and, on 
the first of March, 1830, less than a month after Abraham had 
completed his twenty-first year, he started for the land of 
promise in company with his family and the sons-in-law and 
two daughters of his wife. Their journey was difficult and 
tedious in the extreme. They found the rivers swollen by the. 
spring rains, and through such mud as only the rich soil of 
the West can produce, the ox-teams dragged the wagons, 
loaded with the entire personal effects of the emigrants. One 
of these teams was driven by Abraham. Taking a north- 
westerly course, they struck diagonally across the southern 
part of Indiana, making toward the central portion of Illinois. 
After a journey of two hundred miles, which they made in 
fifteen days, they entered Macon County in that state, and 
there halted. The elder Lincoln selected a spot on the north 
side of the Sangamon River, at the junction of the timber land 
and prairie, about ten miles westerly of Decatur. Here, 
Abraham assisted his father in building a log cabin, and in 
getting the family into a condition for comfortable life. The 
cabin, which still stands, was made of hewed timber, and 
near it were built a smoke-house and stable. All the tools 
they had to work with were a common ax, a broad ax, a hand- 
saw, and a " drawer knife." The doors and floor were made 
of ] umcheons and the gable ends of the structure boarded up 
with plank " rived " by Abraham's hand out of oak timber. 
The nails used — and they were very few — were all brought 
from their old home in Indiana. When the cabin and out- 
buildings were completed, Abraham set to work and helped 
to split rails enough to fence in a lot of ten acres, and /built 
the fence. After breaking up the piece of inclosed prairie, 
and seeing it planted with corn, he, turned over the new home 
to his father, and announced his intention to seek or make his 



40 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

own fortune. He did not leave the region immediately, how- 
ever, but worked Tor hire among the neighboring formers, 
picking up enough to keep himself clothed, and looking for 
better chances. It is remembered that during this time he 
broke up fifty acres of prairie with four yoke of oxen, and 
that he spent most of the winter following in splitting rails 
and chopping wood. No one seems to know who Mr. Lincoln 
worked for during this first summer, but a little incident in the 
pastoral labors of Kev. A. Hale of Springfield, Illinois, will 
perhaps indicate his employer. There seems to be no room 
for the incident afterwards in his life, and it is undoubtedly 
associated with his first summer in Illinois. Mr. Hale, in May, 
18G1, went out about seven miles from his home to visit a sick 
lady, and found there a Mrs. Brown who had come in as a 
neighbor. Mr. Lincoln's name having been mentioned, Mrs. 
Brown said: "Well, I remember Mr. Linken. He worked 
with my old man thirty-four year ago, and made a crap. 
"We lived on the same farm where we live now, and he worked 
all the season, and made a crap of corn, and the next winter 
they hauled the crap all the way to Galena, and sold it for 
two dollars and a halt a bushel. At that time there was no 
public houses, and travelers were obliged to stay at any house 
along the road that could take them in. One evening a right 
smart looking man rode up to the fence, and asked my old 
man it he could get to stay over night. ' Well,' said Mr. 
Brown, ' we can feed your crittur, and give you something 
to eat, but we can 't lodge you unless you can sleep on the 
same bed with the hired man.' The man hesitated, and 
asked ' Where is he ? ' ' Well,' said Mr. Brown, ' you can 
come and see him.' So the man got down from his crittur, 
and Mr. Brown took him around to where, in the shade of 
the house, Mr. Lincoln lay his full length on the ground, with 
an open book before him. ' There,' said Mr. Brown, pointing 
at him, ' lie is.' The stranger looked at him a minute, and 
Bald, ' Well, I think he '11 do,' and he staid and slept with the 
President of the United States." 

There are some mistakes in this story. Mr. Lincoln worked 



LIL'E OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 41 

for Mr. Taylor, who owned the farm, and boarded with Mr. 
Brown. There is an evident mistake in the date of the 
incident, for it puts Mr. Lincoln into Illinois three years or 
more before he removed from Indiana. Of the fact that he 
worked a summer, or part of a summer, on this farm, there is 
no doubt; and it is strongly probable that it was the first sum- 
mer he .spent in Illinois. 

The expectation of the family to find a more healthy location 
than the one they had left was sadly disappointed. In the 
autumn of that year, all were afflicted with fever and ague. 
This was a new enemy, and they were much discouraged ; 
but no steps for relief or removal could be taken then. They 
determined, however, to leave the county at the first oppor- 
tunity. In the meantime, the winter descended, and it proved 
to be the severest season that had been known in the new 
state. It is still remembered for the enormous amount of 
snow that fell. In the following spring, the father left the 
Sangamon for a better locality in Coles County, where he 
lived lono* enouo-h to see his son one of the foremost men 
of the new state, to receive from him many testimonials of 
filial affection, and to complete his seventy-third year. He 
died on the 17th day of January, 1851. 

A man who used to work with Abraham occasionally dur- 
ing his first year in Illinois,* says that at that time lie was the 
roughest looking person he ever saw. He was tall, angular 
and ungainly, and wore trousers made of flax and tow, cut 
tight at the ankle, and out at both knees. He was known to 
be very poor, but he was a welcome guest in every house in 
the neighborhood. This informant speaks of splitting rails 
with Abraham, and reveals some interesting facts concerning 
wages. Money was a commodity never reckoned upon. 
Abraham split rails to get clothing, and he made a bargain 
with Mrs. Nancy Miller to split four hundred rails for every 
yard of brown jeans, dyed with white walnut bark, that would 
be necessary to make him a pair of trousers. In these days 
he used to walk five, six and seven miles to his work. 
*Gco:^c. Cluse. 



42 LIFE OF ABRAIIAM LINCOLN. 

He left home before his father removed to Coles County, 
but he did not cut entirely loose from the family until this 
removal. Then lie was ready fur any opening- to business, and 
it soon came. During the winter of the deep snow, one Denton 
Offutt, a trader, who belonged in Lexington, Kentucky, ap- 
plied to him, Julm D. Johnston, his stepmother's son, and John 
Hanks, a relative of his own mother, to take a flat-boat to 
New Orleans. Abraham had already made the trip, and was 
regarded as a desirable man for the service. A bargain was 
made, and the three men agreed to join Offutt at Springfield, 
the present capital of the state, as soon as the snow should be 
gone. The snow melted about the first of March, but the 
accumulation had been so great that the low country was 
heavily flooded. Finding they could not make the journey 
on foot, they purchased a large canoe, and proceeded along 
the Sangamon River in it. They found Offutt at Springfield, 
but learned that he had failed to buy a boat at BeardstoAvn, 
as he had expected. As all were disappointed, they finally 
settled upon an arrangement by which young Lincoln, Hanks 
and Johnston were to build a boat on Sangamon River, at 
Sangamon toAvn, about seven miles north-west of Springfield. 
For this work they were to receive twelve dollars a month 
each. When the boat was finished, (and every plank of it 
was sawed by hand with a whip-saw,) it was launched on the 
Sangamon, and floated to a point below" New Salem, in Menard 
(then Sangamon) County, where a drove of hogs was to be 
taken on board. At this time, the hogs of the region ran 
wild, as they do now in portions of the border states. Some 
of them were savage, and all, after the manner of swine, 
were difficult to manage. They had, however, been gathered 
and penned, but not an inch could they be made to move 
toward the boat. All the ordinary resources were exhausted 
in the attempts to get them on board. There was but one 
alternative, and this Abraham adopted. He actually carried 
them on board, one by one. His long arms' and great strength 
enabled him to grasp them as in a vise, and to transfer them 
rapidly from the shore to the boat. They then took the boat 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 43 

to New Orleans substantially on the original contract, though 
Hanks, finding that he would be obliged to be absent from 
his family longer than he expected, left the boat at St. Louis, 
and came back. 

The voyage was successfully accomplished, and so great 
was the satisfaction of Lincoln's employer, that he immediately 
proposed to him a different and higher grade of employment. 
Qffott had a store at New Salem, and a mill. These he pro- 
posed to place in Abraham's care. His previous clerks, during 
his long absences, had not only cheated him, but, by their 
insolence and dissipated habits, had driven away his customers. 
OfTutt met Lincoln on the previous winter an entire stranger, 
but, during a brief intercourse, he had become impressed with 
his capacity and honesty. So Abraham became a clerk in a 
pioneer " store." He had not many personal graces to exhibit 
there, but he at once became a center of attraction. Offutt's 
old customers came back, new ones were acquired, and all the 
business of the store was well performed. 

It was while performing the duties of this new position that 
several incidents occurred which illustrated the young man's 
characteristics. He could not rest for an instant under the 
consciousness that he had, even unwittingly, defrauded any- 
body. On one occasion he sold a woman a little bill of goods 
amounting in value, by the reckoning, to two dollars and six 
and a quarter cents. He received the money, and the woman 
went away. On adding the items of the bill again, to make 
himself sure of correctness, he found that he had taken six 
and a quarter cents too much. It was night, and closing and 
locking the store, he started out on foot, a distance of two or 
three miles, for the house of his defrauded customer, and 
delivering over to her the sum whose possession had so much 
troubled him, went home satisfied. On another occasion, just 
as he was closing the store for the night, a woman entered, 
and asked for half a pound of tea. The tea was weighed out 
and paid for, and the store was left for the night. The next 
morning, Abraham entered to begin* the duties of the day, 
when he discovered a four-ounce weight on the scales. He 



44 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLX. 

saw at once that lie had made a mistake, and, shutting the 
store, he took a long walk before bf< to deliver the 

remainder of the tea. These are very humble incidents, but 
they illustrate the man's perfect conscientiousness — his sen- 
sitive honesty — better perhaps than they would if they were 
of greater moment. 

Another incident occurred in this store which illustrates 
other traits of his character. While showing goods to two 
or three women, a bully came in and began to talk in an offen- 
sive manner, using much profanity, and evidently wishing to 
provoke a quarrel. Lincoln leaned over the counter, and 
begged him, as ladies were present, not to indulge in such 
talk. The bully retorted that the opportunity had come for 
which he had long sought, and he would like to see the man 
who could hinder him from saying anything he might choose 
to say. Lincoln, still cool, told him that if he would wait 
until the ladies retired, he would hear what he had to say, 
and give him any satisfaction he desired. As soon as the 
women were gone, the man became furious. Lincoln heard 
his boasts and his abuse for a time, and finding that he was 
not to be put off without a fight, said — "Well, if you must be 
whipped, I suppose I may as well whip you as any other man." 
This was just what the bully had been seeking, he said, so 
out of doors they went, and Lincoln made short work with 
him. He threw him upon the ground, held him there as if 
he had been a child, and gathering some " smart-weed " which 
grew upon the spot, rubbed it into his face and eyes, until the 
fellow bellowed with pain. Lincoln did all this without a 
particle of anger, and when the job was finished, went imme- 
diately for water, washed his victim's face, and did everything 
he could to alleviate his distress. The upshot of the matter 
was that the man became his fast and life-long friend, and was 
a better man from that day. It was impossible then, and it 
always remained impossible, for Lincoln to cherish resentment 
or revenge 

There lived at this time, in and around New Salem, a band 
of rollicking fellows or, more properly, roystering rowdies, 



LITE OF ABRAHAM LINC< 45 

known as "The Clary's Grove Boy?." The special tie that 
united them was physical courage and prowess. r l hese fel- 
lows, although they embraced in their number many men who 
have since become respectable and influential, were wild and 
rough beyond toleration in any community not made up like 
that which produced them. They pretended to be "regula- 
tors,''' and were the terror of all who did not acknowledge 
their rule; and their mode of securing allegiance was by flog- 
ging every man who failed to acknowledge it. They took 
it upon themselves to try the mettle of every new comer, and 
to learn the sort of stuff he was made of. Some one of their 
number was appointed to fight, wrestle, or run a foot-race, 
with each incoming stranger. Of course, Abraham Lincoln 
was obliged to pass the ordeal. 

Perceiving that he was a man who would not easily be 
floored, they selected their champion, Jack Armstrong, and 
imposed upon him the task of laying Lincoln upon his back. 
There is no evidence that Lincoln was an unwilling party in 
the sport, for it was what he had always been accustomed to. 
The bout was entered upon, but Armstrong soon discovered 
that he had met with more than his match. The "Boys" 
were looking on, and, seeing that their champion was likely 
to get the worst of it, did after the manner of such irrespon- 
sible bands. They gathered around Lincoln, struck and dis- 
abled him, and then Armstrong, by " legging " him, got him 
down. 

Most men would have been indignant, not to say furiously 
ano-rv, under such foul treatment as this : but if Lincoln was 
either, he did not. show it. Getting up in perfect <- >od humor, 
he fell to laughing over his discomfiture, and joking about it. 
They had all calculated upon making him angry, and then 
they intended, with the amiable spirit which characterized the 
" Clary's Grove Boys," to give him a terrible drubbing. They 
were disappointed, and, in their admiration of him, immedi- 
ately invited him to become one of the company. Strange as 
it may seem, this was the turning point, apparently, in Lin- 
coln's life, a fact which will appear as our narrative progresses. 



4G LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

It was while young Lincoln was engaged in the duties of 
Offutt's store that lie commenced the study of English gram- 
mar. There was not a text-book to be obtained in the 
neighborhood, but hearing that there was a copy of Kirkhain's 
grammar in the possession of a person seven or eight miles 
distant, he walked to his house and succeeded in borrowing it. 
L. M. Green, a lawyer of Petersburg, in -Menard County, 
says that every time he visited New Salem, at this period, 
Lincoln took him out upon a hill, and asked him to explain 
some point in Kirkham that had given him trouble. After 
having mastered the book, he remarked to a friend, that if that 
was what they called a science, he thought he could " subdue 
another." Mr. Green says that Mr. Lincoln's talk at this 
time showed that he was beginning to think of a great life, 
and a great destiny. Lincoln said to him, on one occasion, 
that all his family seemed to have good sense, but, somehow, 
none had ever become distinguished. He thought that per- 
haps he might become so. He had talked, he said, with men 
who had the reputation of being great men, but he could not 
see that they differed much from others. During this year, he 
was also much engaged with debating clubs, often walking 
six or seven miles to attend them. One of these clubs held 
its meetings at an old store-house in New Salem, and the first 
speech young Lincoln ever made was made there. He used 
to call the exercise " practicing polemics." As these clubs 
were composed principally of men of no education whatever, 
some of their " polemics " are remembered as the most laugh- 
able of farces. His favorite newspaper, at this time, was the 
Louisville Journal, a paper which he received regularly by 
mail, and paid for during a number of years when he had not 
money enough to dress decently. He liked its politics, and 
was particularly delighted with its wit and humor, of which 
he had the keenest appreciation. When out of the store, he 
was always busy in the pursuit of knowledge. One gentle- 
man who met him during this period, says that the first time 
he saw him he was lying on a trundle-bed, covered with books 
and papers, and rocking a cradle with his foot. Of the 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 47 

amount of uncovered space; between the extremities of his 
trousers and the top of his socks which this informant ob- 
served, there shall be no mention. The whole scene, however, 
was entirely characteristic — Lincoln reading and studying, 
and at the same time helping his landlady by quieting her 
child. 

During the year that Lincoln was in Denton Offutt's store, 
that gentleman, whose business was somewhat widely and 
unwisely spread about the country, ceased to prosper in his 
finances, and finally failed. The store was shut up, the mill 
was closed, and Abraham Lincoln was out of business. The 
year had been one of great advances, in many respects. He 
had made new and valuable acquaintances, read many books, 
mastered the grammar of his own tongue, won multitudes of 
friends, and become ready for a step still further in advance. 
Those who could appreciate brains respected him, and those 
whose highest ideas of a man related to his muscles were de- 
voted to him. Every one trusted him. It was while he was 
performing the duties of the store that he acquired the sou- 
briquet " Honest Abe " — a characterization that he never dis- 
honored, and an abbreviation that he never outgrew\ He was 
judge, arbitrator, referee, umpire, authority, in all disputes, 
games and matches of man-flesh and horse-flesh ; a pacificator 
in all quarrels ; every body's friend ; the best natured, the 
most sensible, the best informed, the most modest and unas- 
suming, the kindest, gentlest, roughest, strongest, best young 
fellow in all New Salem and the region round about. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Durixg the year that Lincoln was in the employ of Offutt, 
a series of Indian difficulties were in progress in the state. 
Black Hawk, a celebrated chief of the Sacs, a tribe that by 
the terms of a treaty entered into near the beginning of the 
century, were permanently removed to the western bank of 
the Mississippi, came down the river with three hundred of 
his own warriors, and a few allies from the Kickapoos and 
Pottawatomies, accompanied also by his women and children, 
and crossed to the eastern side with the avowed intention of 
taking possession of the old hunting grounds of the nation on 
the Rock River. As he was committing numerous outrages 
on the way, General Gaines, commanding the United States 
forces in that quarter, immediately marched a few comp 
of regulars to Eoek Islam he took up his position. 

Governor Reynolds seconded his efforts by sending to him 
several hundred volunteers, recruited in the northern and cen- 
tral portions of the state. Black Hawk, not being able to 
meet the force thus assembled, retreated, and, on receiving 
from General Gaines a threat to cross the river and ci. 
him on his own ground, sued for peace, and reaffirmed all the 
terms of the old treaty which confined him to the western 
shore of the Mississippi. 

The - f proved treacherous again, and showed in the 

spring of lf : ;J2 that his treaty was simply an expedient for 
gaining time, and raising a larger force. He gathered his 
warriors in large numbers, and crossed the river with the 



LIFE OF ABRATTAM LINCOLN. 49 

intention, as he openly declared, of ascending the Rock River 
to the territory of the Winnebajjoes, anions whom he doubt- 
less hoped to receive reinforcements. Warned back by Gen- 
eral Atkinson, then commanding the United States troops on 
Rock Island, he returned a defiant message, and kept on. In 
this threatening aspect of affairs, Governor Reynolds issued a 
call for volunteers, and among the companies that immediately 
responded was one from Menard County. Many of the vol- 
unteers were from New Salem and Clary's Grove, and Lincoln, 
being out of business, was the first to enlist. The company 
being full, they held a meeting at Richland for the election of 
officers; and now the influence of the Clary's Grove Boys 
was felt. Lincoln had completely won their hearts, and they 
told him that he must be their captain. It was an office that 
he did not aspire to, and one for which he felt that he had no 
special fitness ; but he consented to be a candidate. There 
was but one other candidate for the office, (a Mr. Kirkpat- 
rick,) and he was one of the most influential men in the 
county. Previously, Kirkpatriek had been an employer of 
Lincoln, and was so overbearing in his treatment of the 
young man that the latter left him. 

The simple mode of electing their captain, adopted by the 
company, was by placing the candidates apart, and telling the 
men to go and stand with the one they preferred. Lincoln 
and his competitor took their positions, and then the word 
was given. At least three out of every four went to Lincoln 
at once. When it was seen by those who had ranged them- 
selves with the other candidate that Lincoln was the choice 
of the majority of the company, they left their places, one by 
one, and came over to the successful side, until Lincoln's op- 
ponent in the friendly strife was left standing almost alone. 
" I felt badly to see him cut so," says a witness of the scene. 
Here was an opportunity for revenge. The humble laborer 
was his employer's captain, but the opportunity was never- 
improved. Mr. Lincoln frequently confessed that no subse- 
quent success of his life had given him half the satisfaction 
that this election did. He had achieved public recognition ; 
4 



hO LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and to one so humbly bred the distinction was inexpressibly 
delightful. 

Captain Lincoln's company and several others formed in the 
vicinity, were ordered to rendezvous at Beardstown, on the 
Illinois River, and here for the first time lie met the Hon. 
John T. Stuart, a gentleman who was destined to have an 
important influence upon his life. Stuart was a lawyer by 
profession, and commanded one of the Sangamon County com- 
panies. Captain Stuart was soon afterwards elected Major 
of a spy battalion, formed from some of 'these companies, and 
had the best opportunities to observe the merits of Captain 
Lincoln. He testifies that Lincoln Avas exceedingly popular 
among the soldiers, in consequence of his excellent care of 
the men in his command, his never-failing good nature, and 
his ability to tell more stories and better ones than any man 
in the service. He was popular also among these hardy men 
on account of his great physical strength. Wrestling was an 
evcry-day amusement, in which athletic game Lincoln had 
but one superior in the army. One Thompson was Lincoln's 
superior in " science," and vanquished everybody rather by 
superior skill than by superior muscular power. 

On the 27th of April, the force at Beardstown moved. A 
few days of severe marching took the troops to the mouth of 
Rock River. It was there arranged with General Atkinson 
that they should proceed up the river to Prophetstown, 
where they were to await the arrival of the regulars. General 
Whiteside, in command of the volunteers, disregarding the 
arrangement for some reason, burnt the Prophet's village, and 
advanced up the stream forty miles further, to Dixon's Ferry. 
These marches were severe ; but to men bred as Captain Lin- 
coln had been, they were but the repetition of every-day 
hardships, under more exciting motives. 

Before arriving at Dixon's Ferry, the army halted, and 
leaving behind their baggage-wagons, made a forced march 
upon the place. Arriving there, scouting parties were sent 
out to ascertain the position of the enemy. At this time they 
were joined by two battalions of mounted volunteers from 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 51 

the region of Peoria, who, having a taste for a little fighting 
on their own responsibility, had rashly engaged Black I lawk, 
ami had been chased in disorder from the field of their boyish 
adventure, leaving eleven of their number behind them dead, — 
an event which has passed into history with the title of "Still- 
man's Defeat." They came to General Whiteside panic- 
stricken, and a council of war was immediately held which 
resulted in the determination to march at once to the scene 
of the disaster. A battle seemed imminent, but the wily sav- 
ages had anticipated the movement, and not one was found. 
They had pushed further up the river, and broken up into 
predatory and foraging bands, "one of which pounced upon a 
settlement near Ottowa, murdered fifteen persons, and carried 
two young women away captive. 

General Whiteside, finding the enemy escaped, buried the 
dead of the day before, returned to camp, and was soon joined 
by General Atkinson with his troops and supplies. The 
twenty-four hundred men thus brought together made a force 
sufficiently large to annihilate Black Hawk's army, if they 
could have brought the cunning warrior to a fight, but this 
was impossible. Here a new trouble arose. The troops had 
volunteered for a limited period, and, as their time had nearly 
expired, and they were surfeited with hardship without glory, 
they clamored to be discharged, and Governor Reynolds yield- 
ed to their demands. The danger still continuing, he issued 
another call for volunteers. Captain Lincoln was ;. nong those 
who had not had enough of the war. He had vcAmteered 
for a purpose, and he did not intend to leave the scrvi. e until 
the purpose was accomplished. The Governor, in addition 
to his general call for volunteers, asked for the formation cC a 
volunteer regiment from those just discharged. General 
Whiteside himself immediately re-enlisted as a private, as did 
also Captain Lincoln. Then followed a whole month of march- 
ing and maneuvering, without satisfactory results. There was 
some fighting near Galena, and a skirmish at Burr-Oak Grove, 
but there was not enough of excitement and success to keep 
the restless spirits of the volunteers contented, and many of 



52 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

them deserted. Indeed, the force became reduced to one-half 
of its original numbers. Lincoln, however, remained true to 
his obligations, although it was not his good fortune to par- 
ticipate in the engagements which brought the war to a speedy 
close. The Indians were overtaken at last by a force under 
General Henry. The pursuit had led them to the Wisconsin 
River, and here the Indians were found in full retreat. They 
were charged upon, and driven in great confusion. Sixty- 
eight Indians Avere killed, a large number wounded, and at 
last, just as the savages Avere crossing the Mississippi, the 
battle of Bad- Ax Avas fought, which resulted in the capture 
of Black HaAvk himself, with nearly all his Avarriors. 

The Black HaAvk Avar Avas not a very remarkable affair. 
It made no military reputations, but it Avas noteAvorthy in the 
single fact that the tAvo simplest, homeliest and truest men 
eno;a2;ed in it afterAvard became Presidents of the United 
States, \iz : General ( then Colonel ) Zachary Taylor, and 
Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln neA r er spoke of it as anything 
more than an interesting episode in his life, except upon one 
occasion Avhen he used it as an instrument for turning the 
military pretensions of another into ridicule. The friends of 
General Cass, AA'hen that gentleman Avas a candidate for the 
presidency, endeaA r ored to endoAv him Avith a military reputa- 
tion. Mr. Lincoln, at that time a representative in Congress, 
delivered a speech before the House, which, in its allusions to 
General Cass, Avas exquisitely sarcastic and irresistibly humor- 
ous. "By the Avay, Mr. Speaker," said Mr. Lincoln, "do 
you know I am a military hero ? Yes, sir, in the days of the 
Black Hawk Avar, I fought, bled and came away. Speaking 
of General Cass's career reminds me of my own. I Avas not 
at Stillman's Defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass to 
Hull's surrender ; and like him I saAV the place A r ery soon 
afterward. It is quite certain I did not break my SAVord, for 
I had none to break ; but I bent my musket pretty badly on 
one occasion. * * * If General Cass Avent in advance of me 
in picking Avhortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in chai'ges 
upon the wild onions. If he saAV any live, fighting Indians, 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 53 

it -was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody strugglej 
with the mosquitoes; and although I never fainted from loss 
of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry." Mr. 
Lincoln then went on to say that if he should ever turn dem- 
ocrat, and be taken up as a candidate for the presidency by 
the democratic party, he hoped they would not make fun of 
him by attempting to make of him a military hero. He lived 
to see himself the candidate of another party, and witnessed 
a decided disposition on the part of his campaign biographers 
to make a little political capital for him out of his connection' 
with the Black Hawk Avar — an attempt which must have ap- 
pealed to his quick sense of the ludicrous, as well as recalled 
the speech from which an extract has been quoted. 

The soldiers from Sangamon County arrived home just ten 
days before the state election, and Mr. Lincoln was immedi- 
ately applied to for permission to place his name among the 
candidates for the legislature. He was then but twenty-three 
years old, had but just emerged from obscurity, and had been 
but a short time a resident of the county. The application 
was a great surprise to him. Indeed, aside from the evidence 
of personal and neighborhood friendship which it afforded him, 
the surprise could hardly have been a pleasant one, for his 
political convictions had placed him among those who were in 
almost a hopeless minority. Party feeling ran high between 
the friends of General Jackson and Henry Clay, but the 
friends of Mr. Clay had little power. Illinois was strongly 
democratic and for many years remained so. His opponents 
in the canvass were well known men, and had shown them- 
selves and made their speeches throughout the county; yet 
in Mr. Lincoln's own precinct he was voted for alike by po- 
litical friend and foe. The official vote of the New Salem 
precinct, as shown by the poll-book in the clerk's office at 
Springfield, was, at this time, for Congress • Jonathan H. 
Pugh 179, Joseph Duncan 97 ; while the vote for Abraham 
Lincoln for the legislature was 277, or one more than the ao-- 
gregate for both the candidates for Congress. This vote was 
undoubtedly the result of the personal popularity acquired by 



54 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Lincoln during his brief military campaign. All his soldiers 
voted for him, and worked for his election wherever they had 
influence. But he was defeated on the general vote, and im- 
mediately looked about to find what there was for him to do. 

It is interesting to recall the fact that at this time he 
seriousl} r took into consideration the project of learning the 
blacksmith's trade. He was without means, and felt the im- 
mediate necessity of undertaking some business that would 
give him bread. It was while he was entertaining this project 
that an event occurred which, in his undetermined state of 
mind, seemed to open a way to success in another quarter. 
A man named Reuben Radford, the keeper of a small store in 
the village of New Salem, had somehow incurred the dis- 
pleasure of the Clary's Grove Boys, who had exercised their 
" regulating " prerogatives by irregularly breaking in his 
windows. William G. Greene, a friend of young Lincoln, 
riding by Radford's store soon afterward, was hailed by him, 
and told that he intended to sell out. Mr. Greene went into 
the store, and, looking around, offered him at random four 
hundred dollars for his stock. The offer was immediately 
accepted. Lincoln happening in the next day, and being 
familiar with the value of the goods, Mr. Greene proposed to 
him to take an inventory of the stock, and see what sort of a 
bargain he had made. This he did, and it was found that the 
sroods were worth six hundred dollars. Lincoln then made 
him an offer of a hundred and twenty-five dollars for his bar- 
gain, with the proposition that he and a man named Berry, 
as his partner, should take his (Greene's) place in the notes 
given to Radford. Mr. Greene agreed to the arrangement, 
but Radford declined it, except on condition that Greene 
would be their security, and this he at last assented to. 

Berry proved to be a dissipated, trifling man, and the busi- 
ness soon became a wreck. Mr. Greene was obliged to go 
in and help Lincoln close it up, and not only do this but pay 
Radford's notes. ' All that young Lincoln Avon from the store 
was some very valuable experience, and the burden of a debt 
to Greene which, in his conversations with the latter, he 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 55 

always spoke of as " the national debt." But this national 
debt, unlike the majority of those which bear the title, was 
paid to the utmost farthing in after years. Six years after- 
wards, Mr. Greene, who knew nothing of the law in such 
cases, and had not troubled himself to inquire about it, and 
who had, in the meantime, removed to Tennessee, received 
notice from Mr. Lincoln that he was ready to pay him what 
he had paid for Berry — he, Lincoln, being legally bound to pay 
the liabilities of his partner. 

About this time Mr. Lincoln Avas appointed postmaster by 
President Jackson. The office was too insignificant to be 
considered politically, and it was given to the young man 
because eve. ybody liked him, and because he was the only man 
willing to take it who could make out the returns. He was 
exceedingly pleased with the appointment, because it gave him 
a chance to read every newspaper that was taken in the vicin- 
ity. He had never been able to get half the neAvspapers he 
wanted before, and the office gave him the prospect of a con- 
stant feast. Not wishing to be tied to the office, as it yielded 
him no revenue that would reward him for the confinement, 
lie made a post-office of his hat. Whenever he went out, 
the letters were placed in his hat. When an anxious looker 
for a letter found the postmaster, he had found his office ; 
and the public officer, taking off his hat, looked over his mail 
wherever the public might find him. He kept the office 
until it was discontinued, or removed to Petersburgh. 

One of the most beautiful exhibitions of Mr. Lincoln's Hind 
honesty occurred in connection with the settlement of his 
accounts with the post-office department, several years after- 
wards. It was after he had become a lawyer, and had been 
a legislator. He had passed through a period of great poverty, 
had acquired his education in the law in the midst of many 
perplexities, inconveniences and haxxlships, and had met with 
temptations, such as few men could resist, to make a tempo- 
rary use of any money he might have in his hands. One day, 
seated in the law office of his partner, the agent of the post- 
office department entered, and inquired if Abraham Lincoln 



56 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

was within. Mr. Lincoln responded to his name, and was 
informed that the agent had called to collect a balance due 
the department since the discontinuance of the New Salem 
office. A shade of perplexity passed over Mr. Lincoln's face, 
which did not escape the notice of friends who were present. 
One of them said at once : " Lincoln, if you are in want of 
money, let us help you." He made no reply, but suddenly 
rose, and pulled out from a pile of books a little old trunk, 
and, returning to the table, asked the agent how much the 
amount of his debt was. The sum was named, and then 
Mr. Lincoln opened the trunk, pulled out a little package of 
coin wrapped in a cotton rag, and counted out the exact sum, 
amounting to something more than seventeen dollars. After 
the agent had left the room, he remarked quietly that he never 
used any man's money but his own. .although this sum had 
been in his hands during all these years, he had never regarded 
it as available, even for any temporary purpose of his own. 

The store having " winked out," to use his own expression, 
he was ready for something else, and it came from an unex- 
pected quarter. John Calhoun, a resident of Springfield, 
and since notorious as President of the Lecompton Constitu- 
tional Convention, in Kansas, was the surveyor of Sangamon 
County. The constant influx of immigrants made his office a 
busy one, and, looking around for assistance, he fixed upon 
Lincoln, and deputed to him all his work in the immediate 
vicinity of New Salem. Lincoln had not the slightest knowl- 
edge of surveying, and but the slenderest acquaintance with 
the science upon which it was based. He would be obliged to 
fit himself for his work in the shortest possible time, and he 
did. Mr. Calhoun lent him a copy of Flint and Gibson, and 
after a brief period of study, he procured a compass and chain 
(the old settlers say that his first chain was a grape-vine,) and 
went at his work. The work procured bread, and, what 
seemed quite as essential to him, books ; for during all these 
months he was a close student, and a constant reader. Mr. 
Lincoln surveyed the present town of Petersburgh, and much 
of the adjacent territory. He pursued this business steadily 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 57 

for a year or more, and with such suecess that the accuracy 
of his surveys has never been called in question. One inter- 
ruption must have occurred in his Avork, though it was brief. 
His compass and chain were attached and sold to pay a debt 
of Berry's, for which he was surety, but they were bought 
by a man named James Short, who immediately gave them 
back to liim. 



CHAPTER V. 

PIititerto the life of our subject has run in a single stream. 
His history thus far has related to his private career — to his 
birth, education, growth of mind and character, and personal 
strangles. Before entering upon that period of his life 
through which we arc to trace a double current, a private and 
a public one, it will be proper to inquire what kind of a man 
he had become. 

]S T o man ever lived, probably, who was more a self-made man 
than Abraham Lincoln. Not a circumstance of his life 
favored the development which he had reached. He was 
self-moved to study under the most discouraging conditions. 
He had few teachers, few books, and no intellectual compan- 
ions. His father could neither read nor write. His mother 
died when he was a child. He had none of those personal 
attractions which would naturally enlist the sympathies and 
assistance of any refined men and women with whom he must 
occasionally have come in contact. He was miserably poor, 
and was compelled to labor among poor people to win his daily 
bread. There was not an influence around him except that 
left upon him by his " angel mother," which did not tend 
rather to drag him down than lift him up. He was not en- 
dowed with a hopeful temperament. He had no force of self- 
esteem — no faith in himself that buoyed him up amid the 
contempt of the proud and prosperous. He was altogether a 
humble man — humble in condition, and humble in spirit. 
Yet, bv the love of that which was <jood and great and true, 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 59 

and by the hunger and thirst of a noble nature, he was led to 
the acquisition of a practical education, and to the develop- 
ment of all those peculiar powers that were latent within him. 

He was loyal to his convictions. There is no doubt that at 
this time he had begun to think of political life. He was, at 
least, thoroughly conversant with the politics of his own state 
and of the country. There was not a more diligent reader of 
political newspapers than he. He had become familiar with 
the position and history of the politicians and statesmen of the 
country, and must have been entirely aware of the unpopularity 
of those toward whom his judgment and sympathies led him. 
That he was then, and always remained, an ambitious man, 
there is no question ; and with this fact in mind Ave can measure 
the sacrifice which adherence to his convictions cost him. His 
early love of Henry Clay has already been noticed ; and this 
love for the great Kentuckian, though circumstances modified 
it somewhat, never ceased. He clung to him with the Avarmest 
affection through the most of his lite, pronounced his ciilo^T 
when he died, and stood firmly by the principles which he 
represented. In a state overAvhelmingly democratic, he took 
his position with the minority, and steadily adhered to the 
opposition against all the temptations to quick and certain 
success which desertion would bring him. 

He Avas a marked and peculiar man. People talked about 
him. His studious habits, his greed for information, his 
thorough mastery of the difficulties of every iicav position in 
which he Avas placed, his intelligence touching all matters of 
public concern, his unwearying good nature, his skill in telling 
a story, his great athletic poAver, his quaint, odd ways, his 
uncouth appearance, all tended to bring him into sharp con- 
trast with the dull mediocrity by Avhich he Avas surrounded. 
Denton OfTutt, his old employer in the store, said, in the ex- 
travagance of his admiration, that he knew more than any 
other man in the United States. The GoA-ernor of Indiana, 
one of Qffutt's acquaintances, said, after having a conversation 
with Lincoln, that the young man "had talent enough in him 
to make a President." In every circle in which hi? found 



GO lifl; of abjiauau lixcoln. 

himself, whether refined or coarse, lie was always the center 
of attraction. William G. Greene says that when he (Greene) 
was a member of Illinois college, he brought home with him, 
on a vacation, Richard Yates, the present Governor of the 
state, and some other boys, and, in order to entertain them, 
took them all up to see Lincoln. He found him in his usual 
position and at his usual occupation. He was flat on his back, 
on a cellar door, reading a newspaper. That was the manner 
in which a President of the United States and a Governor of 
Illinois became acquainted with one another. Mr. Greene 
says that Lincoln then could repeat the whole of Burns, and 
was a devoted student of Shakspeare. So the rough back- 
woodsman, self-educated, entertained the college boys, and 
was invited to dine with them on bread and milk. How he 
managed to upset his bowl of milk is not a matter of history, 
but the fact that he did so is, as is the further fact that Greene's 
mother, who loved Lincoln, tried to smooth over the accident, 
and relieve the young man's embarrassment. 

Wherever he moved he found men and women to respect 
and love him. One man who knew him at that time says 
that "Lincoln had nothing, only plenty of friends." And 
these friends trusted him wholly, and were willing to be led 
by him. His unanimous election as Captain in the Black 
Hawk Avar, and the unanimous vote given him for the legis- 
lature by political friend and foe, wherever in the county he 
was known, illustrates his wonderful popularity. All the 
circumstances considered, it Avas probably without a precedent 
or parallel. When we remember that this popularity was 
achieved without any direct attempt to Avin it — that he flat- 
tered nobody, made no pretensions whatever, and Avas the 
plainest and poorest man in his precinct, Ave can appreciate 
something of the strength of his character and the beauty and 
purity of his life. He aroused no jealousies, for he was not 
selfish. He made no enemies, because he felt kindly toward 
every man. People were glad to see him rise, because it 
seemed just that he should rise. Indeed, all seemed glad to 
help him along. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. > 61 

He was a man of practical expedients. lie always found 
some way to get out of difficulties, whether moral or mechan- 
ical, and was equally ingenious in his expedients for escaping 
or surmounting each variety. Governor Yates, in a speech 
at Springfield, before a meeting at which William G. Greene 
presided, quoted Mr. Greene as having said that the first time 
lie ever saw Lincoln he was "in the Sangamon River, with 
his trousers rolled up five feet more or less, trying to pilot a 
flat-boat over a mill-dam. The boat was so full of water that 
it was hard to manage. Lincoln got the prow over, and then, 
instead of waiting to bail the water out, bored a hole through 
the projecting part, and let it run out." Barring a little 
western extravagance in the statement of a measurement, 
the incident is truly recorded ; and it illustrates more forcibly 
than words can describe the man's ingenuity in the quick in- 
vention of moral expedients, then and afterwards. His life 
had been a life of expedients. He had always been engaged 
in making the best of bad conditions and untoward circum- 
stances, and in meeting and mastering emergencies. Among 
those who did not understand him, he had the credit or the 
discredit, of being a cunning man ; but cunning was not at all 
an element of his nature or character. He was simply in- 
o-cnious ; he was wonderfully ingenious ; but he was not 
cunning. Cunning is, or tries to be, far-sighted; ingenuity 
disposes of occasions. Cunning contrives plots; ingenuity 
dissolves them. Cunning sets traps; ingenuity evades them. 
Cunning envelops its victims in difficulties; ingenuity helps 
them out of them. Cunning is the offspring of selfishness ; 
ingenuity is the child or companion of practical wisdom. He 
took his boat safely over a great many mill-dams during his 
life, but always by an expedient. 

He was a religious man. The fact may be stated without 
any reservation — with only an explanation. He believed in 
God, and in his personal supervision of the affairs of men. 
He believed himself to be under his control and guidance. 
He believed in the power and ultimate triumph of the right, 
tlumigh his belief in God. This unwavering faith in a Divine 



62 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Providence began at his mother's knee, and ran like r. thread 
of ""old through all the inner experiences of his life. His 
constant sense of human duty was one of the forms by which 
his faith manifested itself. His conscience took a broader 
grasp than the simple apprehension of right and wrong. He 
recognized an immediate relation between God and himself, in 
all the actions and passions of his life. He was not pro- 
fessedly a Christian — that is, he subscribed to no creed, — 
joined no organization of Christian disciples. He spoke little 
then, perhaps less than he did afterward, and always sparingly, 
of his religious belief and experiences; but that he had a 
deep religious life, sometimes imbued with superstition, there 
is no doubt. We cuess at a mountain of marble bv the out- 
cropping ledges that hide their whiteness among the ferns. 

At this period .of his life he had not exhibited in any form 
that has been preserved, those logical and reasoning powers 
that so greatly distinguished him during his subsequent public 
career. The little clubs at and around Xew Salem where he 
"practiced polemics" kept no records, and have published no 
reports. The long talks in Offutt's .store, on the flat-boat, on 
the farm and by the cabin fireside have not been preserved; 
but there is no doubt that the germ of the power was within 
him, and that the peculiarity of his education developed it 
into the remarkable and unique faculty which did much to 
distinguish him among the men of his generation. He had 
been from a child, in the habit of putting his thoughts into 
lan^uao-e. He wrote much, and to this fact is doubtless owin£ 
his clearness in statement. He could state with great exact- 
ness any fact within the range of his knowledge. His knowl- 
edge was not great, nor his vocabulary rich, but he coidd state 
the details of one by the use of the other with a precision that 
Daniel Webster never surpassed. 

He was a childlike man. No public man of modern days 
has been fortunate enough to carry into his manhood so much 
of the directness, truthfulness and simplicity of childhood as 
distinguished him. He was exactly what he seemed. He 
was not awkward for a purpose, but becauso he could not help 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 63 

it. He did not dress shabbily to win votes, or excite comment, 
but partly because he was too poor to dress well, and partly 
because he had no love for dress, or taste in its arrangement. 
He was not honest because he thought honesty was "the best 
policy," but because honesty was with him "the natural way 
of living." With a modest estimate of his own powers, and 
a still humbler one of his acquisitions, he never assumed to be 
more or other than he was. A lie in any form seemed impos- 
sible to him. He could neither speak one nor act one, and in 
the lio-ht of this fact all the words and acts of his life are to 
be judged. 

If this brief statement of his qualities and powers represents 
a wonderfully perfect character — so strangely pure and noble 
that it seems like the sketch of an enthusiast, it is not the 
writer's fault. Its materials are drawn from the lips of old 
friends who speak of him with tears — who loved him then as 
if he were their brothei-, and who worship his memory with 
a fond idolatry. It is drawn from such humble materials as 
composed his early history. He loved all, was kind to all, 
was without a vice of appetite or passion, was honest, was 
truthful, was simple, was unselfish, was religious, was intelli- 
gent and self-helpful, was all that a good man could desire in 
a son ready to enter life. AVe shall see how such a man 
with such a character entered life, and passed through it. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Several of the old acquaintances of Mr. Lincoln speak of 
his having studied law, or having begun the study of law, 
previous to 1834. He had doubtless thought of it, and had 
made it a subject of consideration among his friends. "W ith 
a vao-ue project of doing this at some time, he had bought a 
copy of Blackstone at an auction in Springfield, and had 
looked it over. This fact was enough to furnish a basis for 
the story ; but by his own statement he did not begin the 
study of his profession until after he had been a member of 
the legislature. 

Two years had passed away since his unsuccessful attempt 
to be elected a representative of Sangamon County. In the 
meantime, he had become known more widely. His duties as 
surveyor had brought him into contact with people in other 
localities. He had become a political speaker, and, although 
rather rough and slow and argumentative, was very popular. 
He had made a few speeches on the condition that the friends 
who persuaded him to try the experiment " would not laugh 
at him." They agreed to the condition, and found no occa- 
sion to depart from it. 

In 1834, he became a^ain a candidate for the legislature, 
and was elected by the highest vote cast for any candidate. 
Major John T. Stuart, whose name has been mentioned as an 
officer in the Black Hawk war, and whose acquaintance Lin- 
coln made at Beardstown, was also elected. Major Stuart 
had already conceived the highest opinion of the young man, 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 65 

and seeing much of him during the canvass for the election, 
privately advised him to study law. Stuart was himself en- 
gaged in a large and lucrative legal practice at Springfield. 
Lincoln said he was poor — that he had no money to buy books, 
or to live where books might be borrowed and used. Major 
Stuart offered to lend him all he needed, and he decided to 
take the kind lawyer's advice, and accept his offer. At the 
close of the canvass which resulted in his election, he walked 
to Springfield, borrowed " a load " of books of Stuart, and 
took them home wjth him to New Salem. Here he began 
the study of law in good earnest, though with no preceptor. 
He studied while he had bread, and then started out on a 
surveying tour, to win the money that would buy more. One 
who remembers his habits during this period says that he 
went, day after day, for weeks, and sat under an oak tree on 
a hill near New Salem and read, moving around to keep in 
the shade, as the sun moved. He was so much absorbed that 
some people thought and said that he was crazy. Not unfre- 
quently he met and passed his best friends without noticing 
them. The truth was that he had found the pursuit of his 
life, and had become very much in earnest. 

During Lincoln's campaign, he possessed and rode a horse, 
to procure which he had quite likely sold his compass and 
chain, for, as soon as the canvass had closed, he sold a horse, 
and bought these instruments indispensable to him in the only 
pursuit by which he could make his living. "When the time 
for the assembling of the legislature approached, Lincoln 
dropped his law books, shouldered his pack, and, on foot, 
trudged to Vandalia, then the capital of the state, about a 
hundred miles, to make his entrance into public life. 

His personal appearance at this time must have been some- 
thing of an improvement upon former days. A gentleman 
now living in Chicago, then a resident of Coles County,* met 
him at that time, or very soon afterwards, and says that he 
was dressed in plain mixed jeans, his coat being of the surtout 
fashion, which, at that day, and in that part of the country, 

*U. F. Linder, Esq. 
5 



66 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

was a very reputable dress. He speaks of him, also, as being 
then extremely modest and retiring. Colonel Jesse K. Dubois, 
(one of the Sangamon County delegation,) and Lincoln were 
the two youngest men in the House. During this session, 
Mr. Lincoln said very little, but learned much. As he was 
a novice in legislation, he left the talking to older and wiser 
men. James Semple, afterwards United States Senator, was 
elected speaker, and by him Lincoln was assigned to the second 
place on the committee on public accounts and expenditures. 
The subject of controlling interest before the legislature has 
no special interest in connection with Mr. Lincoln's life. The 
state was new, and very imperfectly developed. A plan of 
internal improvements was in agitation, special reference being 
had to a loan for the benefit of the Illinois and Michigan Canal 
Company, which had been incorporated in 1825. The loan 
bill was not carried at this session, though it was at a subse- 
quent one. Lincoln was constantly in his place, and faithful 
in the performance of all the duties that were devolved upon 
him. When the session closed, he walked home as he came, 
and resumed his law and his surveying. 

The canvass of 1836, which resulted in his re-election to 
the legislature, was an unusually exciting one, and resulted in 
the choice of a House which has probably never been equaled 
in any state, in the whole history of the country, for its num- 
ber of remarkable men. As early as June 13th, of that 
year, we find a letter in the Sangamon Journal, addressed by 
Mr. Lincoln to the editor, beginning as follows: "In your 
paper of last Saturday, I see a communication over the signa- 
ture of 'Many Voters,' in which the candidates who are 
announced in the Journal, are called upon to ' show their 
hands.' Agreed. Here 's mine." He then goes on in his 
characteristic way to "show his hand," which was that sub- 
stantially of the new whig party. It was during this canvass 
that he made the most striking speech he had ever uttered, 
and one that established his reputation as a first-class political 
debater. It has been spoken of, by some writers, as the first 
speech he ever made ; but this is a mistake. The opposing 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 67 

candidates had mot at Springfield, as is the custom in the 
western states, fur a public discussion of the questions 
involved in the canvass ; and a large number of citizens had 
gathered in the Court House to hear the speeches. Niniaa 
W. Edwards, then a whig, led off, and was followed by Dr. 
Early, a sharp debater and a representative man among the 
democrats. Early bore down very heavily upon Edwards — 
so much so that the latter wanted the opportunity for an im- 
mediate rejoinder, but Lincoln took his turn upon the platform. 
Embarrassed at first, and speaking slowly, he began to lay 
down and fix his propositions. His auditors followed him 
with breathless attention, and saw him inclose his adversary 
in a wall of fact, and then weave over him a network of de- 
ductions so logically tight in all its meshes, that there was no 
escape for the victim. He forgot himself entirely, as he grew 
warm at his work. His audience applauded, and with rid- 
icule and wit he riddled the man whom he had made helpless. 
Men who remember the speech allude particularly to the 
transformation which it wrought in Mr. Lincoln's appearance. 
The homely man was majestic, the plain, good-natured face 
was full of expression, the long, bent figure was straight as 
an arrow, and the kind and dreamy eyes flashed with the fire 
of true inspiration. His reputation was made, and from that 
day to the day of his death, he was recognized in Illinois as 
one of the most powerful orators in the state. 

The Sangamon County delegation, consisting of nine rep- 
resentatives, was so remarkable for the physical altitude of its 
members that they were known as "The Long Nine." Not a 
man of the number was Jess than six feet high, and Lincoln 
was the tallest of the nine, as he was the leading man intel- 
lectually, in and out of the House. Among those who com- 
posed the House, were General John A. McClernand, after- 
wards a member of Congress, Jesse K. Dubois, afterwards 
auditor of the state; James Semple, the speaker of this and 
the previous House, and subsequently United States Senator ; 
Robert Smith, afterwards member of Congress ; John Hogan, 
at present a member of Congress from St. Louis ; General 



63 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLX. 

James Shields, afterwards United States Senator; John De- 
ment, who lias since been treasurer of the state; Stephen A. 
Douglas, -whose subsequent public career is familiar to all ; 
Newton Cloud, president of the convention which framed the 
present state constitution of Illinois ; John J. Hardin, who fell 
at Buena Vista; John Moore, afterwards Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor of the state; William A. Richardson, subsequently 
United States Senator, and William McMurtny, who has 
since been Lieutenant Governor of the state. This list does 
not embrace all who had then, or who have since been distin- 
guished, but it is large enough to show that Lincoln was, 
during the term of this legislature, thrown into association 
and often into antagonism with the brightest men of the new 
state. It is enough, with this fact in mind, to say that he was 
by them and by the people regarded as one of the leading men 
in the House. 

The principal measure with this legislature was the adoption 
of a general system of public improvements. It was a great 
object with the special friends of this measure to secure the 
co-operation and support of the two senators and nine repre- 
sentatives from Sangamon County, but they firmly refused to 
support the measure, unless the removal of the capital from 
Vandalia to Springfield was made a part of the proposed sys- 
tem. So the measure for this removal passed through its 
various stages in company with the internal improvement bill, 
and both were enacted on the same day. The measure which 
thus changed the location of the capital of the state to Spring- 
field, brought great popularity to the members from Sangamon, 
at least in their own home, and especially to Mr. Lincoln, who 
was put forward on all occasions to do the important work in 
securing it. When it is remembered that he had achieved his 
position before the people and among the leading men of the 
state at the early age of twenty-seven, it must be admitted 
that the disadvantages under which he had labored had not 
hindered him from doing what the best educated and most 
favored would have been proud to do. 

It was at this session that Mr. Lincoln met Stephen A. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 69 

Douglas for the first time. Mr. Douglas was then only 
twenty-three years old, and was the youngest man in the 
House. Mr. Lincoln, in speaking of the fact subsequently, 
said that Douglas was then "the least man he ever saw." 
Pie was not only very short but very slender. The two 
vouno- men, who eonnneneed their intellectual and political 
sparring during the session, could hardly have foreseen the 
struo-o-le in which they were to engage in after years — a 
struo-o-le which foreshadowed and even laid the basis of an 
epoch in the national history, and in the history of freedom 
and progress throughout the world. 

This session of the legislature was notable for its connec- 
tion with the beginning of Mr. Lincoln's anti-slavery history. 
It was at Vandalia, at this time, that Mr. Lincoln and Mr. 
Douglas marked out the course in which they were to walk — 
one to disappointment and a grave of unsatisfied hopes and 
baffled ambitions, the other to the realization of his highest 
dreams of achievement and renown, and a martyrdom that 
crowns his memory with an undying glory. 

Illinois contained many immigrants from the border slave 
states. Its territory was joined to two of them ; and there 
was a strong desire to live in harmony with neighbors quick 
to anger and resentment, and sensitive touching their "pecu- 
liar institution." The prevailing sentiment in the state was 
in favor of slavery, or in favor of slaveholders in the exercise 
of their legal and constitutional rights. There were, in fact, 
a few hundred slaves living in the state at that time, as appears 
by the census tables, but by what law is not apparent. The 
democratic party was unanimously pro-slavery, and whatever 
there may have been of anti-slavery sentiment among the whigs 
was practically of little account. The abolitionist was hated 
and despised by both parties alike, and the whigs deprecated 
and disowned the title with indignation. There was doubtless 
some anti-slavery sentiment among the whigs, but it was 
weak and timid. Both parties were strong in their professed 
regard for the Constitution, and neither party doubted that the 
Constitution protected the institution of American Slavery. 



70 ' LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The agitation of the slavery question was just beginning to 
create uneasiness among slaveholders and politicians ; and dur- 
ing the winter the subject was broached in the legislature. 
Resolutions were introduced of an extreme pro-slavery char- 
acter, and the attempt was made to fix the stigma of aboli- 
tionism upon all who did not indorse them. They were carried 
through by the large democratic majority, and the opposition 
to them was weak in numbers and weaker still in its positions. 
We can judge something of its weakness when we learn that 
only tAvo men among all the whig members were found willing 
to subscribe to a protest against these resolutions. Abraham 
Lincoln and Dan Stone, " representatives from the County of 
Sangamon," entered upon the Journal of the House their 
reasons for refusing to vote for these offensive resolutions, and 
they were the only men in the state who had the manliness to 
do it. The points of the protest were these : that while " the 
Congress of the United States has no power under the Con- 
stitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the 
different states," and that while " the promulgation of abolition 
doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils," still, the 
" institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad 
policy," and Congress " has the power, under the Constitution, 
to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia." The latter 
proposition was qualified by the statement that this power 
" ought not to be exercised unless at the request of the people 
of said District." Certainly this protest was a moderate one, 
and we may judge by it something of the character of the 
resolutions which compelled its utterance. "We may judge 
something also of the low grade of anti-slavery sentiment in 
the whig party at that time, when only two men could be 
found to sign so moderate and guarded a document as this. 
Still, the refusal to sign may have been a matter of policy, 
for which a good reason could be given. It was something, 
however, for two men to stand out, and protest that slavery 
was a moral and political evil, over which Congress had power 
upon the national territory. It was the beginning of Mr. 
Lincoln's anti-slavery record, and modest and moderate as it 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIKUOLX. 71 

was, and much as Mr. Lincoln afterwards accomplished for 
the abolition of slavery, ho never became more extreme in his 
views than the words of this protest indicate. lie never 
ceased to believe that Congress had no power under the 
Constitution to interfere with slavery in the different states. 
lie never thought worse of slavery than that it was founded 
in injustice and bad policy. He never changed his belief 
touching the power of Congress over the institution of slavery 
in territory under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United 
States. This little protest, entered into with his brother rep- 
resentative, Dan Stone, was the outline of the platform upon 
which he stood, and fought out the great anti-slavery battle 
whose trophies were four million freedmen, and a nation re- 
deemed to justice and humanity. 

In the meantime, Mr. Lincoln had made no money. He 
had walked his hundred miles to Vandalia in 1836, as he did ; 
in 1834, and when the session closed he walked home again. 
A gentleman in Menard County remembers meeting him and 
a detachment of " The Long Nine " on their way home. They 
were all mounted except Lincoln, who had thus far kept up 
with them on foot. If he had money, he was hoarding it for 
more important purposes than that of saving leg-weariness 
and leather. The weather was raw, and Lincoln's clothing 
was none of the warmest. Complaining of being cold to one 
of his companions, this irreverent member of "The Long 
Nine " told his future President that it was no wonder he was 
cold — "there was so much of him on the ground." None of 
the party appreciated this homely joke at the expense of his 
feet (they were doubtless able to bear it) more thoroughly 
than Lincoln himself. We can imagine the cross-fires of wit 
and humor by which the way was enlivened during tins' cold 
and tedious journey. The scene was certainly a rude one, 
and seems more like a dream than a reality, when we remem- 
ber that it occurred less than thirty years ago, in a state which 
now contains hardly less than a million and a half of people 
and three thousand uiilos of railway. 



CHAPTER VII. 

TlTE time had come with Mr. Lincoln for translation to a 
new sphere of life. By the scantiest means he had wrested 
from the hardest circumstances a development of his charac- 
teristic powers. He had acquired the rudiments of an Eng- 
lish education. He had read several text books of the natural 
sciences, with special attention to geology, in the facts and 
laws of which he had become particularly intelligent. He 
had read law as well as he could without the assistance of 
preceptors. He had attended a few sessions of the courts 
held near him, and had become somewhat familiar with the 
practical application of legal processes. He had, from the 
most discouraging beginnings, grown to be a notable political 
debater. He had had experience in legislation, had received 
public recognition as a man of mark and power, had been ac- 
cepted as one of the leaders of an intelligent and morally in- 
fluential political party, and had fairly outgrown the humble 
conditions by which his life had hitherto been surrounded. 

At this time he received from his Springfield friend, Major 
Stuart, a proposition to become his partner in the practice of 
the law. Mr. Lincoln's influence in securing the transfer of 
the capital from Vandalia to Springfield had already given him 
a favorable introduction to the people of the city ; and on the 
15th of April, 1837, he took up his abode there. He went 
to his new home with great self-distrust and with many mis- 
givings concerning his future; but Springfield became his 
permanent home. He had been admitted to the bar during the 



LIFE OF ARRATIAM LINCOLN. 73 

autumn of 183G, and went to his work with the ambition to 
be something, and the determination to do something. 

It must have been with something of regret that he turned 
his baek upon New Salem, for he left behind him a town full 
of friends, who had watched his progress with the friendliest 
interest, aided him when he needed aid, and appreciated him. 
He left behind him all the stepping-stones by which he had 
mounted to the elevation he had reached — the old store-house 
where he had been a successful clerk, the old store-house 
where he had been an unsuccessful principal, the scenes of 
his wrestling-matches and foot-races, the lounging-places 
where he had sat and told stories with a post-office in his hat, 
the rough audience-rooms in which he had " practiced polem- 
ics," the places where he had had his rough encounters with 
the Clary's Grove Boys, and, last, the old oak tree whose 
shadow he had followed to keep his law text out of the sun. 
But these things could have touched him but little when 
placed by the side of a few cabin homes, presided over by 
noble women who, with womanly instinct, had detected the 
manliness of his nature, and had given him a home " for his 
company," as they kindly said, when he needed one in charity. 
He never forgot these women, and occasion afterward came to 
show the constancy of his gratitude and the faithfulness of his 
friendship. Arriving in Springfield he became a member of 
the family of Hon. William Butler, afterward treasurer of the 
state, and here came under influences which, to a man bred as 
he had been, were of the most desirable character. 

Mr. Lincoln's business connection with Mr. Stuart must 
have been broken and brief, for he was still a member of the 
legislature, which was summoned to a special session on the 
July following his removal to Springfield, and Mr. Stuart, 
himself, was soon afterwards elected to, and took his scat in, 
Congress. Still, the connection was one of advantage to the 
young lawyer. Mr. Stuart's willingness to receive him as a 
partner was an indorsement of his powers and acquisitions 
that must have helped him to make a start in professional life. 
This life the people of Springfield, who gratefully remembered 



74 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

his services to them in the legislature, would not permit him 
to pursue without interruption. They kept him upon the leg- 
islative ticket in 1838, and he was re-elected. On the assem- 
blin« r of this legislature, Mr. Lincoln was at once recognized to 
be the foremost man on the whig side of the house, and was 
brought forward, without any dissent, as their candidate for 
speaker. The strength of this legislature was pretty evenly 
divided between the two parties. A great change, indeed, 
had occurred in the state. The financial crash of 1837 had 
prostrated industry and trade, and the people had, either justly 
or unjustly, held the dominant party responsible for the disas- 
ters from which they had suffered. Anti-slavery agitation had 
been voted down in Congress by the friends of Mr. Van Buren, 
who came into the presidential office during the previous year. 
All papers relating to slavery were, by solemn resolution of 
Congress, laid on the table without being debated, read, 
printed or referred. "With financial ruin in the country, and 
a o-ag-law in Congress, the democratic party had a heavier 
load than it could carry. This was felt in Illinois, where the 
old democratic majority was very nearly destroyed. Colonel 
"W. L. D. Ewing was the candidate of the democrats for 
speaker, in opposition to Mr. Lincoln, and was at last elected 
by a majority of one vote. Mr. Lincoln took a prominent 
part in all the debates of the session. Some of them were 
political, and were intended to have a bearing upon the next 
presidential election, and especially upon the politics of the 
state ; but the most of them related to local and ephemeral 
affairs which will be of no interest to the general reader. 

Allusion has already been made to Mr. Lincoln's ingenuity — 
his quickness at expedients. One of his modes of getting 
rid of troublesome friends, as well as troublesome enemies, 
was by telling a story. . He began these tactics early in life, 
and he grew to be wonderfully adept in them. If a man 
broached a subject which he did not wish to discuss, he told a 
story which changed the direction of the conversation. If he 
was called upon to answer a question, he answered it by tell- 
ing a story. He had a story for everything — something had 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 75 

occurred at some place where he used to live, that illustrated 
every possible phase of every possible subject with which he 
might have Connection. His faculty of finding or making a 
story to match every event in his history, and every event to 
which he bore any relation, was really marvelous. That he 
made, or adapted, some of his stories, there is no question. 
It is beyond belief that those which entered his mind left it no 
richer than they came. It is not to be supposed that he spent 
any time in elaborating them, but by some law of association 
every event that occurred suggested some story, and, almost 
by an involuntary process, his mind harmonized their discord- 
ant points, and the story was pronounced "pat," because it 
was made so before it was uttered. Every truth, or combi- 
nation of truths, seemed immediately to clothe itself in a form 
of life, where he kept it for reference. His mind was full of 
stories ; and the great facts of his life and history on entering 
his mind seemed to take up their abode in these stories, and 
if the srarment did not fit them it was so modified that it did. 
A good instance of the execution which he sometimes ef- 
fected with a story occurred in the legislature. There was a 
troublesome member from Wabash County, who gloried par- 
ticularly in being a " strict consti'uctionist." He found some- 
thing " unconstitutional " in every measure that was brought 
forward for discussion. He was a member of the Judiciary 
Committee, and was quite apt, after giving every measure a 
heavy pounding, to advocate its reference to this committee. 
No amount of sober argument could floor the member from 
"Wabash. At last, he came to be considered a man to be si- 
lenced, and Mr. Lincoln was resorted to for an expedient by 
which this object might be accomplished. Pie soon afterwards 
honoi'ed the draft thus made upon him. A measure was 
brought forward in which Mr. Lincoln's constituents were 
interested, when the member from Wabash rose and dis- 
charged all his batteries upon its unconstitutional points. 
Mr. Lincoln then took the floor, and, with the quizzical ex- 
pression of features Avhich he could assume at will, and a 
mirthful twinkle in his gray eyes, said : " Mr. Speaker, the 



7G LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

attack of the member from Wabash on the constitutionality 
of this measure reminds me of an old friend of mine. lie ; s 
a peculiar looking old fellow, with shaggy, overhanging eye- 
brows, and a pair of spectacles under them. (Everybody 
turned to the member from Wabash, and recognized a personal 
description.) One morning just after the old man got up, he 
imagined, on looking out of his door, that he saw rather a 
lively squirrel on a tree near his house. So he took doAvn his 
rifle, and fired at the squirrel, but the squirrel paid no atten- 
tion to the shot. He loaded and fired again, and again, until, 
at the thirteenth shot, he set down his gun impatiently, and 
said to his boy, who was looking on, 'Boy, there 's something 
wrong about this rifle.' 'Rifle's all right, I knoAV 'tis,' re- 
sponded the boy, 'but where 's your squirrel?' 'Don't you 
see him, humped up about half way up the tree?' inquired 
the old man, peering over his spectacles, and getting mystified. 
'No, I don't,' responded the boy ; and then turning and look- 
ing into his father's face, he exclaimed, ' I see your squirrel ! , 
You 've been firing at a louse on your eyebrow ! ' ' 

The story needed neither application nor explanation. The 
House was in convulsions of laughter ; for Mr. Lincoln's skill 
in telling a story was not inferior to his appreciation of its 
points and his power of adapting them to the case in hand. 
It killed off the member from Wabash, who was very careful 
afterwards not to provoke any allusion to his "eyebrows." 

A man who practiced law in Illinois in the earlier years of 
the state " rode the circuit," a proceeding of which the older 
communities of the East know nothing. The state of Illinois, 
for instance, is divided into a number of districts, each com- 
posed of a number of counties, of which a single judge, ap- 
pointed or elected, as the case may be, for that purpose, makes 
the circuit, holding courts at each county seat. Railroads 
being scarce, the earlier circuit judges made their trips from 
county to county on horseback, or in a gig ; and, as lawyers 
were not located in each county, all the prominent lawyers 
living within the limits of the circuit made the tour of the 
circuit with the judge. After the business of one county was 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



77 



finished, llic judge and all the Lawyers mounted their horses 
or their gigs and pushed on to the next county-scat, and so 
repeated the process until the whole circuit was compassed ; 
and this is what is known in the western states as " riding 
the circuit." 

Mr. Lincoln rode the circuit ; and it was upon these long 
and tedious trips that he established his reputation as one of 
the best lawyers in Illinois, and, in some respects, the superior 
of any lawyer in the state. It is doubtful whether he was 
ever regarded by his professional brethren as a well-read law- 
yer. Toward the latter part of his life, he had, by his own 
powers of generalization and deduction, become versed in the 
principles of law, and was coming to be recognized by the 
best lawyers as their peer ; but his education was too defective 
at the first to make him anything better than what is called 
*.* a case lawyer." He studied his cases with great thorough- 
ness, and was so uniformly successful in them that the people 
regarded him as having no equal. He had been engaged in 
practice but a short time when he was found habitually on 
one side or the other of every important case in the circuit. 
The writer remembers an instance in which many years ago, 
before he had risen to political eminence, he was pointed out 
to a stranger, by a citizen of Springfield, as " Abe Lincoln, 
the first lawyer of Illinois." He certainly enjoyed great 
reputation among the people. 

Mr. Lincoln was a very weak lawyer when engaged by the 
weak side. This side he never took, if, by careful investiga- 
tion of the case, he could avoid it. If a man went to him 
with the proposal to institute a suit, he examined carefully the 
man's grounds for the action. If these were good, he entered 
upon the case, and prosecuted it faithfully to the end. If the 
o-rounds were not good he would have nothing to do with the 
case. He invariably advised the applicant to dismiss the 
matter, telling him frankly that he had no case, and ought 
not to prosecute. Sometimes he was deceived. Sometimes 
he discovered, in the middle of a trial, by the revelation of a 
witness, that his client had lied to him. After the moment 



78 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

that he was convinced that justice was opposed to him and 
his client, lie lost all his enthusiasm and all his courage. In- 
deed, he lost all interest in the case. His efforts for his client 
after that moment were simply mechanical, for he would not 
lie for any man, or strive to make the worse appear the better 
reason for any man. He had a genuine interest in the estab- 
lishment of justice between man and man. As a citizen, as a 
lover of good order, as a man who believed in truth and jus- 
tice, he was, by every instinct of his nature, opposed to the 
success of villainy and the triumph of wrong, and he would 
not sell himself to purposes of injustice and immorality. He 
repeatedly refused to take fees on the wrong side of a case. 
When his clients had practiced gross deception upon him, he 
forsook their cases in mid-passage ; and he always refused to 
accept fees of those whom he advised not to prosecute. On 
one occasion, while engaged upon an important case, he dis- 
covered that he was on the wrong side. His associate in the 
case was immediately informed that he (Lincoln) would not 
make the plea. The associate made it, and the case, much to 
the surprise of Lincoln, was decided for his client. Perfectly 
convinced that his client was wrong, he would not receive one 
cent of the fee of nine hundred dollars which he paid. It is 
not wonderful that one who knew him well spoke of him as 
"perversely honest." 

This "riding the circuit" was, in those early days, a pecu- 
liar business, and tended to develop peculiar traits of charac- 
ter. The lonn- passages from court-house to court-house, the 
stopping at cabins by the way to eat, or sleep, or feed the 
horse, the evenings at the country taverns, the expedients re- 
sorted to to secure amusement, the petty, mean and shameful 
cases that abounded, must have tended to make it a strange 
business, and not altogether a pleasant one. These long pas- 
sages while riding the circuit were seasons of reflection with 
Mr. Lincoln. An amusing incident occurred in connection 
with one of these journeys, which gives a pleasant glimpse 
into the good lawyer's heart. He was riding by a deep 
slough, in which, to his exceeding pain, he saw a pig strug- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 79 

£rlin£f, and with such faint efforts that it was evident that lie 
could not extricate himself from the mud. Mr. Lincoln looked 
at the pig and the mud which enveloped him, and then looked 
at some new clothes with which he had but a short time before 
enveloped himself. Deciding against the claims of the pig, 
he rode on, but he could not get rid of the vision of the poor 
brute, and, at last, after riding two miles, he turned back, de- 
termined to rescue the animal at the expense of his new clothes. 
Arrived at the spot, he tied his horse, and coolly went to work 
to build of old rails a passage to the bottom of the hole. 
Descending on these rails, he seized the pig and dragged him 
out, but not without serious damage to the clothes he wore. 
Washing his hands in the nearest brook, and wiping them on 
the grass, he mounted his gig and rode along. He then fell 
to examining the motive that sent him back to the release of 
the pig. At the first thought, it seemed to be pure benevo- 
lence, but, at length, he came to the conclusion that it was 
selfishness, for he certainly went to the pig's relief in order 
(as he said to the friend to whom he related the incident,) to 
"take a pain out of his own mind." This is certainly a new 
view of the nature of sympathy, and one which it will be well 
for the casuist to examine. 

While Mr. Lincoln was not regarded by his professional 
associates as profoundly versed in the principles of law, he 
was looked upon by them as a very remarkable advocate. 
No man in Illinois had such power before a jury as he. This 
was a fact universally admitted. The elements of his power 
as an advocate were perfect lucidity of statement, gi-eat fair- 
ness in the treatment of both sides of a case, and the skill to 
conduct a common mind along the chain of his logic to Lis own 
conclusion. In presenting a case to a jury, he invariably pre- 
sented both sides of it. After he had done this, there was 
really little more to be said, for he could state the points of 
his opponent better generally than his opponent could state 
them for himself. The man who followed him usually found 
himself handling that which Mr. Lincoln had already reduced 
to chaff. There was really no trick about this. In the first 



80 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

«place lie would not take a case in which he did not believe he 
was on the side of justice. Believing that the right was with 
him, he felt that he could afford to give to the opposing coun- 
sel everything that he could claim, and still have material 
enough left for carrying his verdicts. His fairness was not 
only apparent but real, and the juries he addressed knew it to 
be so. He would stand before a jury and yield point after 
point that nearly every other lawyer would dispute under the 
same circumstances, so that, sometimes, his clients trembled 
with apprehension ; and then, after he had given his opponent 
all he had claimed, and more than he had dared to claim, he 
would state his own side of the case with such power and 
clearness that that which had seemed strong against him was 
reduced to weakness, that which had seemed to be sound wa9 
proved to be specious, and that which had the appearance of 
being conclusive against him was plainly seen to be corrobo- 
rative of his own positions on the question to be decided. 
Every juror was made to feel that Mr. Lincoln was an abso- 
lute aid to him in arriving at an intelligent and impartial ver- 
dict. The cunning lawyers thought that Mr. Lincoln was 
very cunning in all this — thought that his fairness was only 
apparent and assumed for a purpose — but it has already been 
stated that cunning was not an element of his nature. He 
had no interest in the establishment of anything but justice, 
and injustice, even if it favored him, could give him no satis- 
faction. The testimony of the lawyers who were obliged to 
try cases with him is that he was "a hard man to meet." 

Coming from the people, and being perfectly familiar with 
the modes of thought and mental capacity of the men who 
o-enerally composed his juries, he knew all their difficulties, 
knew just what language to address to them, what illustrations 
to use, and how to bring his arguments to bear upon their 
minds. This point is Avell illustrated by the details of a case 
in the Coles Circuit Court. 

The controversy was about a colt, in which thirty-four wit- 
nesses swore that they had known the colt from its falling, and 
that it was the property of the plaintiff, while thirty swore 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 81 

that they had known the colt from its falling, and that it was 
the property of the defendant. It may be stated, at starting, 
that these witnesses wore all honest, and that the mistake 
grew out of the exact resemblances which two colts bore to 
each other. One circumstance was proven by all the wit- 
nesses, or nearly all of them, viz : that the two claimants of 
the colt agreed to meet on a certain day with the two marcs 
which were respectively claimed to be the dams of the colt, 
and permit the colt to decide which of the two he belonged 
to. The meeting occurred according to agreement, and, as it 
was a singular case and excited a good deal of popular in- 
terest, there were probably a hundred men assembled on their 
horses and mares, from far and near. Now the colt really 
belonged to the defendant in the case. It had strayed away 
mid fallen into company with the plaintiff's horses. The plain- 
tiff's colt had, at the same time, strayed away, and had not 
returned, and was not to be found. The moment the two 
mares were brought upon the ground, the defendant's mare 
and the colt gave signs of recognition. The colt went to its 
dam, and would not leave her. They fondled each other ; 
and, although the plaintiff brought his mare between them, 
and tried in various ways to divert the colt's attention, the 
colt would not be separated from its dam. It then followed 
her home, a distance of eight or ten miles, and, when within 
a mile or two of the stables, took a short cut to them in ad- 
vance of its dam. The plaintiff had sued to recover the colt 
thus gone back to its owner. 

In The presentation of this case to the jury, there were 
thirty-four witnesses "on the side of the plaintiff, while the de- 
fendant had, on his side, only thirty witnesses : but he had on 
his side the colt itself and its dam — thirty-four men against 
thirty men and two brutes. Here was a case that was to be 
decided by the preponderance of evidence. All the witnesses 
were equally positive, and equally credible. Mr. Lincoln 
was on the side of the defendant, and contended that the voice 
of nature in the mare and colt ought to outweigh the testimony 
of a hundred men. The jury were all farmers, and all illiter- 
6 



82 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ate men, and he took great pains to make them understand 
what was meant by the "preponderance of evidence." He 
said that in a civil suit, absolute certainty, or such certainty 
as would be required to convict a man of crime, was not es- 
sential. They must decide the case according to the impres- 
sion which the evidence had produced upon their minds, and, 
if they felt puzzled at all, he would give them a test by which 
they could bring themselves to a just conclusion. "Now," 
said he, "if you were going to bet on this case, on which side 
would you be willing to risk a picayune? That side on which 
you would be willing to bet a picayune, is the side on which 
rests the preponderance of evidence in your minds. It is 
possible that you may not be right, but that is not the ques- 
tion. The question is as to where the preponderance of evi- 
dence lies, and you can judge exactly where it lies in your 
minds, by deciding as to which side you would be willing to 
bet on." 

The jury understood this. There was no mystification 
about it. They had got hold of a test by which they could 
render an intelligent verdict. Mr. Lincoln saw into their 
minds, and knew exactly what they needed ; and the moment 
they received it, he knew that his case was safe, as a quick 
verdict for the defendant proved it to be. In nothing con- 
nected with this case was the ingenuity of Mr. Lincoln 
more evident, perhaps, than in the insignificance of the sum 
which he placed in risk by the hypothetical wager. It was 
not a hundred dollars, or a thousand dollars, or even a dollar. 
but the smallest silver coin, to show to them that the verdict 
should go with the preponderance of evidence, even if the 
preponderance should be only a hair's weight. 

If it was the habit of Mr. Lincoln to present both sides of 
his cases to the jury, it was, of course, his habit to study both 
sides with equal thoroughness. He was called slow in arriv- 
ing at the points of a case. It is probably true that his mirid 
was not one of the quickest in the processes of investigation. 
He certainly exercised great care in coming to his conclusions. 
It was then, in the days of his legal practice, his habit to 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 83 

argue against himself, and it always remained the habit of his 
life. He took special interest in the investigation of every 
point that could be made against him and his positions. This 
habit made his processes of investigation slower than those 
of other men, while the limited range of his le<ral education 
rendered it necessary that he should bestow more study upon 
his cases than better educated lawyers found it necessary to 
bestow. 

One of the most even-tempered men that ever lived, Mr. 
Lincoln was the subject of great varieties of mood, and ex- 
tremes of feeling. His constitution embraced remarkable con- 
tradictions. Oppressed with a deep melancholy at times, 
weighed down by the great problems of his own life and of 
humanity at large, assuming and carrying patiently the most 
important public burdens, he was as simple as a boy, took 
delight in the most trivial things, and with the subtlest and 
quickest sense of the ludicrous, laughed incontinently over 
incidents and stories that would hardly move any other man 
in his position to a smile. At one time, while riding the cir- 
cuit with a friend, he entered into an exposition of his feelings 
touching what seemed to him the growing corruption of the 
world, in politics and morals. " Oh how hard it is," he ex- 
claimed, " to die, and not to be able to leave the world any 
better for one's little life in it ! " Here was a key to one cause 
of his depression, and an index to his aspirations. After this 
conversation and the ride were over, he probably arrived at a 
country tavern, and there spent the evening in telling stories 
to his brother lawyers, and in laughing over the most trifling 
incidents. 

It will perhaps be as well, at this point of his history as 
elsewhere, to allude to his habit of telling stories that it 
would not be proper to repeat in the presence of women. It 
is useless for Mr. Lincoln's biographers to ignore this habit, 
for it was notorious. The whole West, if not the whole 
country, is full of these stories ; and there is no doubt at all 
that he indulged in them Avith the same freedom that he did 
in those of a less exceptionable character. Good people are 



84 LIFE OF AHIi ATI AM LINCOLN. 

at a loss to account for this apparent love of impurity, in a 
man of such exalted aims, such deep truthfulness, such high 
aspirations. The matter is easily explained. 

Those who have heard these stories will readily admit that 
they are the wittiest and most amusing of their kind, and, 
when they have admitted that, they have in their minds the 
only reason of Mr. Lincoln's indulgence in them. It was 
always the elements of wit and humor that captivated him. 
He was not an impure man in his life, or in his imaginations. 
For impurity's sake, he never uttered an impure word, or 
made an impure allusion, but, whenever he found anything 
humorous, ludicrous or witty, he could not resist the inclina- 
tion to use it, whatever the incidents might be with which it 
was associated. Anything that was morally beautiful touched 
him to tears. He was equally sensitive to all that was heroic, 
beautiful, grand, sweet, ludicrous and grotesque in human life. 
He wept as readily over a talc of heroic self-devotion, as he 
laughed over a humorous story. 

It is also to be said that the habit of telling these excep- 
tionable stories was the habit of his profession, in his region 
of country, at the time he was engaged in practice there. 
He indulged in them no more than his brother lawyers, and 
he excelled them in his stories no more than he did in every- 
thing else. It is to be said, further, that there is something 
in the practice of the law that makes these stories more toler- 
able in the legal profession, even when the members of it are 
Christian men — men of pure morals and pure instincts — than 
in any other profession in the world. The legal profession 
brings men into constant association with impurity, with the 
details of cases of shame, with all the smut and dirt that can 
be raked from the haunts of vice, with all the particulars of 
prurient dalliance and bestial licentiousness. With this ha- 
bitual — this professional — familiarity with impurity, it is not 
strange that the sense of propriety in language becomes dead- 
ened ; and none know better than lawyers that there is in their 
profession, in the older parts of the country as well as in the 
aewer, great laxity of speech, touching subjects which they 



LIKE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. H, r . 

would blush to introduce — which would cost thorn their self- 
respect and the respect of the community to introduce — among 
women. Mr. Lincoln was not a sinner in this thing above 
other men, equally pure and good in his profession. It is not 
a habit to be justified in any man. It is not a habit to be 
tolerated in any man who indulges in it to gratify simply his 
love of that which is beastly. In Mr. Lincoln's case, it is a 
habit to be explained and regretted. His whole life had been 
spent with people without refinement. His legal study and 
practice had rendered this class of subjects familiar. It was 
the habit of his professional brethren to tell these objectionable 
stories, and, even if his pure sensibilities sometimes rebelled — 
for he possessed and always maintained the profoundest 
respect for women — the wit and humor they contained over- 
tempted him. 

One of the most beautiful traits of Mr. Lincoln was his 
considerate regard for the poor and obscure relatives he had 
left, plodding along in their humble ways of life. Wherever 
upon his circuit he found them, he always went to their dwel- 
lings, ate with them, and, when convenient, made their houses 
his home. He never assumed in their presence the slightest 
superiority to them, in the facts and conditions of his life. 
He gave them money when they needed and he possessed it. 
Countless times he was known to leave his companions at the 
village hotel, after a hard day's work in the court room, and 
spend the evening with these old friends and companions of 
his humbler days. On one occasion, when urged not to go, he 
replied, "Why, aunt's heart would be broken if I should 
leave town without calling upon her;" yet he was obliged to 
walk several miles to make the call. 

A little fact in this connection will illustrate his ever-present 
desire to deal honestly and justly with men. He had always 
a partner in his professional life, and, when he went out upon 
the circuit, this partner was usually at home. While out, he 
frequently took up and disposed of cases that were never en- 
tered at the office. In these cases, after receiving his fees, 
he divided the money in his pocket book, labeling each sum 



86 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

(wrapped in a piece of paper,) that belonged to his partner, 
stoting his name, and the case on which it was received. He 
could not be content to keep an account. He divided the 
money, so that if he, by any casualty, should fail of an oppor- 
tunity to pay it over, there could be no dispute as to the exact 
amount that was his partner's due. This may seem trivial, 
nay, boyish, but it was like Mr. Lincoln. But we must set 
aside the professional man for a while, to notice other affairs 
which mingled in his life. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The "Sangamon Chief,*' as Mr. Lincoln had been popularly 
named, was placed upon the legislative ticket again in 1840, 
and re-elected. At a special session of the previous legisla- 
ture, held during 1839, Yandalia as the capital of the state 
had been forsaken, and Springfield received the legislature 
and the archives and offices of the state government. Mr. 
Lincoln was in the legislature, and, at the same time, at home. 
The fact reconciled him to holding an office which he felt to 
be a disadvantage to his.business, for he could attend upon his 
duties at the State House, and, at the same time, have a care 
that his professional interests were not entirely sacrificed. In 
the only session held by the legislature of 1840, no important 
business of general interest was transacted. The democratic 
preponderance in the state had been partially restored and 
was still maintained, and although Mr. Lincoln was again the 
first man on the whig side and the candidate for speaker, for 
which omce he was supported by more than the strength of 
his party, he was defeated as he had been in 1838. This ses- 
sion finished up Mr. Lincoln's connection with the legislature 
of the state, for, although urged by the people to represent 
them again, considerations of a private nature made him per- 
emptory in his refusal to be again a candidate. It is recorded, 
however, that he was re-elected in 1854, and that he resigned 
before taking his seat. The election was made against hi* 
will, for a larger political life was already dawning upon him. 
It was about this time that a strange incident in his private 



88 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

life occurred — one, certainly, which was quite in discord with 
his principles and feelings. A sharp, sarcastic poem appeared 
in the Sangamon Journal, edited at that time by Simeon 
Francis. The poem had an evident allusion to James Shields, 
a young lawyer of Springfield, and since a United States 
Senator from Illinois. General Shields was at that time hot- 
blooded and impulsive, and, instead of laughing off the matter, 
regarded it seriously, and demanded of Mr. Francis the au- 
thor's name. Mr. Francis knew at once what the demand 
meant, and sought to delay his answer. He asked the young 
man for a day to consider whether he should reveal the name 
of his contributor or not. The request was granted, when Mr. 
Francis went to work to ascertain how he could lift the respon- 
sibility of the publication from his own shoulders, as the writer 
of the poem was a lady. On inquiry among the lady's 
friends, he ascertained that Mr. Lincoln was, at least, one of 
her admirers, and that he possibly bore a tenderer relation to 
her. Accordingly he went to Mr. Lincoln, and told him that 
he was in trouble, and explained to him the cause of his diffi- 
culty. It seemed certain that somebody woidd be obliged to 
fight a duel with Mr. Shields, or be branded by him as a cow- 
ard ; and Mr. Francis, though entirely responsible for the pub- 
lication of a lady's poem shrank, in a very unworthy way, 
from the alternative. 

As soon as Mr. Lincoln comprehended the case, and saw 
what Mr. Francis expected of him, he told the editor that if 
Mr. Shields should call again, and demand the author's name, 
to inform him that he, Lincoln, held himself responsible for 
the poem. The result was just what was expected, at least 
by Mr. Francis. Mr. Lincoln at once received a challenge 
and accepted it. There must have existed in that part of the 
country, at that time, a state of feeling on this subject which 
cannot now be comprehended among the people of the North. 
With a natural aversion to all violence and bloodshed, with a 
moral sense that shrank from the barbaric arbitrament of the 
duel, with his whole soul at Avar with the policy which secka 
to heal a wound of honor by the commission of a crime, he 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 89 

walked with his eyes wide open into this duel. It is possible 
that he imagined Mr. Shiel Is did not mean a duel by his 
question, or that he would not fight a duel with him; but he 
certainly knew that he made himself liable to a challenge, and 
intended to aecept it it' it came. Gallantry was, of course, 
the moving power. The lady's name was to be protected, and 
the editor who had been imprudent enough to publish her 
poem relieved from all responsibility on her account. 

Mr. Lincoln selected broad-swords as the weapons for the 
encounter, and immediately took instruction in the exercise of 
that arm, of Dr. E. II. Merriman, a physician of Springfield. 
The place of meeting was Bloody Island, a disputed or neu- 
tral territory on the Mississippi Eiver, lying between Illinois 
and Missouri. The meeting took place according to appoint- 
ment, but friends interfered, determined that on such foolish 
grounds no duel should be fought, and no blood shed. The 
parties were brought together, and a reconciliation easily ef- 
fected. Mr. Lincoln felt afterwards that he could have done, 
under the circumstances, no bss than he did. lie stated to a 
friend, however, that he selected broad-swords because his 
arms were long. He had not the slightest intention of injur- 
ing Mr. Shields, and thought that the length of his arms would 
aid him in defending his own person. 

This incident does not seem to have been remembered 
against Mr. Lincoln, by any class of the community in which 
he lived. It was certainly a boyish affair, and was probablv 
regarded and forgotten as such. Even the excitements of a 
great political campaign, like that which resulted in his elec- 
tion to the presidency, did not call it from its slumbers, and 
the American people were spared a representation of Mr. 
Lincoln's atrocities as a duelist. 

Mr. Lincoln's law partnership with Mr. Stuart was dis- 
solved in 1840, when he immediately formed a business asso- 
ciation with Judge S. T. Logan of Springfield, one of the 
ablest and most learned lawyers in the state. ' He entered 
upon this new partnership with a determination to devote his 
time more exclusively to business than he had done, but the 



90 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

people would not permit him to do so. He was called upon 
from all quarters to engage in the exciting political canvass of 
1840, and made many speeches. 

In 1842, having arrived at his thirty-third year, Mr. Lincoln 
married Miss Mary Todd, a daughter of Hon. Eobert S. Todd 
of Lexington, Kentucky. The marriage took place in Spring- 
field, where the lady had for several years resided, on the 
fourth of November of the year mentioned. It is probable 
that he married as early as the circumstances of his life per- 
mitted, for he had always loved the society of women, and 
possessed a nature that took profound delight in intimate fe- 
male companionship. A letter written on the eighteenth of 
May following his marriage, to J. F. Speed, Esq., of Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, an early and a life-long personal friend, gives 
a pleasant glimpse of his domestic arrangements at this time. 
" We are not keeping house," Mr. Lincoln says in this letter, 
" but boarding at the Globe Tavern, which is very well kept 
now by a widow lady of the name of Beck. Our rooms are 
the same Dr. Wallace occupied there, and boarding only 
costs four dollars a week. * * * I most heartily wish you and 
your Fanny will not fail to come. Just let US know the time, 
a week in advance, and we will have a room prepared for you, 
and we '11 all be merry together for a while." He seems to 
have been in excellent spirits, and to have been very hearty 
in the enjoyment of his new relation. 

The private letters of Mr. Lincoln were charmingly natural 
and sincere, and there can be no harm in giving a passage 
from one written during these early years, as an illustration. 
Mr. Lincoln has been charged with having no strong personal 
attachments; but no one can read his private letters, written 
at any time during his life, without perceiving that his per- 
sonal friendships were the sweetest sources of his happiness. 
To a particular friend, he wrote February 25th, 1842 : " Yours 

of the sixteenth, announcing that Miss and you ' are no 

longer twain but one flesh,' reached me this morning. I have 
no way of telling you how much happiness I wish you both, 
though I believe you both can conceive it. I feel somewhat 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 91 

jealous of both of you now, for you will be so exclusively 
concerned for one another that I shall be forgotten entirely. 

My acquaintance with Miss (I call her thus lest you 

should think I am speaking of your mother,) was too short 
for me to reasonably hope to long be remembered by her ; and 
still I am sure I shall not forget her soon. - Try if you can- 
not remind her of that debt she* owes me, and be sure you do 
not interfere to prevent her paying it. 

" I regret to learn that you have resolved not to return to 
Illinois. I shall be very lonesome without you. How mis- 
erably things seem to be arranged in this world ! If we have 
no friends we have no pleasure ; and if we have them, we 
are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss. I 
did hope she and you would make your home here, yet I own 
I have no right to insist. You owe obligations to her ten 
thousand times more sacred than any you can owe to others, 
and in that light let them be respected and observed. It is 
natural that she should desire to remain with her relations and 
friends. As to friends, she could not need them anywhere ; — 
she would have them in abundance here. Give my kind 

regards to Mr. and his family, particularly to Miss E. 

Also to your mother, brothers and sisters. Ask little E. 

D if she will ride to town with me if I come there again. 

And, finally, give a double reciprocation of all the love 

she sent me. Write me often, and believe me, yours forever, 
Lincoln." 

The kind feeling, the delicate playfulness, the considerate 
remembrance of all who were associated with the recipient of 
the missive, and the hearty, outspoken affection which this 
letter breathes, reveal a sound and true heart in the writer. 
It is true, indeed, that Mr. Lincoln had a friendly feeling to- 
ward everybody, and it is just as true that his personal friend- 
ships were as devoted and unselfish as those of a man of more 
exclusive feelings and more abounding prejudices. 

Mr. Lincoln seems to have been thinking about a seat in 
Congress at this time. On the 24th of March, 1843, he 
wrote to his friend Speed: "We had a meeting of the whigs 



92 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of the county here on Inst Monday, to appoint delegates to a 
district convention, and Baker* beat me, and got the delega- 
tion instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of my at- 
tempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates, so that, 
in getting Baker the nomination, I shall be 'fixed' a good deal 
like a fellow who is made groomsman to the man who has 
'cut him out,' and is marrying his own dear gal." 

In a subsequent letter, he writes : " In regard to the Con- 
gress matter here, you were right in supposing I would sup- 
port the nominee. Neither Baker nor myself, however, will 
be the man, but Hardin." f 

It was Mr. Lincoln's rule and habit to "support the nomi- 
nee." He was always a loyal party man. In the ordinary 
use of the word, Mr. Lincoln was not, and never became, a 
reformer. He believed that a man, in order to effect anything, 
should work through organizations of men. In a eulogy 
upon Henry Clay which he delivered in 1852, occurs the 
following passage : " A free people, in times of peace and 
quiet, when pressed by no common danger, naturally divide 
into parties. At such times, the man who is not of either 
party, is not, cannot be, of any consequence. Mr. Clay, 
therefore, was of a party." Whether his position was sound 
or otherwise, he believed it was, and always acted upon it. 
With as true a love of freedom and progress as any man — 
with a regard for popular rights never surpassed by profes- 
sional reformers — he was careful to go no faster, and no farther, 
than he could take his party with him, and no faster and no 
farther than was consistent with that party's permanent suc- 
cess. He would endanger nothing by precipitancy. His pol- 
icy was to advance surely, even if he was obliged to proceed 
slowly. The policy which distinguished his presidential ca- 
reer was the policy of his life. It was adopted early, and he 
always followed it. 

With Mr. Lincoln's modest estimate of his own services, 

* Colonel Edward D. Baker, (afterwards United States Senator from 
Oreoon,) who fell at Ball's Bluff. 

f Colonel John J. Hardin, who fell at Buena Vista. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 93 

and with his friendly feelings toward all, it is not to be won- 
dered at that lie never made much money. It was not possible 
for him to regard his clients simply in the light of business. 
An unfortunate man was a subject of his sympathy, no matter 
what his business relations to him might be. A Mr. Cogdal, 
who related the incident to the writer, met with a financial 
wreck in 1843. He employed Mr. Lincoln as his lawyer, and 
at the close of the business, gave him a note to cover the reg- 
ular lawyer's fees. He was soon afterwards blown up by an 
accidental discharge of powder, and lost his hand. Meeting 
Mr. Lincoln some time after the accident, on the steps of the 
State House, the kind lawyer asked him how he was getting 
along. "Badly enough," replied Mr. Cogdal, "I am both 
broken up in business, and crippled." Then he added, " I have 
been thinking about that note of yours." Mr. Lincoln, who 
had probably known all about Mr. CogdaFs troubles, and had 
prepared himself for the meeting, took out his pocket-book, and 
saying with a laugh, " well, you needn't think any more about 
it," handed him the note. Mr. Cogdal protesting, Mr. Lincoln 
said "if you had the money, I would not take it," and hurried 
away. At this same date, he was frankly writing about his 
poverty to his friends, as a reason for not making them a visit, 
and probably found it no easy task to take care of his family, 
even when board at the Globe Tavern w r as " only four dollars 
a week." 

In the active discharge of the duties of his profession, in 
the enjoyments of his new domestic life, and in the intrigues 
of local politics, as betrayed in his letter to Mr. Speed, the 
months passed away, and brought Mr. Lincoln to the great 
political contest of 1844. Henry Clay, his political idol was 
the candidate of the whig party for the presidency, and he 
went into the canvass with his whole heart. As a candidate 
for presidential elector, he canvassed the state of Illinois, and 
afterwards went over into Indiana, and made a series of 
speeches there. The result of this great campaign to Mr. 
Clay and to. the whig party was a sad disappointment. Proba- 
bly no defeat of a great party ever brought to its members so 



<M LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

much personal sorrow as this. Mr. Clay had the power of 
exciting an enthusiastic affection for his person that few politi- 
cal men have enjoyed. The women of the country were as 
much interested in his election as their brothers and husbands 
were, and wept at his defeat as if he had been their best and 
most intimate friend. Mr. Lincoln was among the heartiest 
of these mourners ; but, while the event rendered his great 
political exemplar a hopeless man politically, the canvass itself 
had raised Mr. Lincoln to the proudest hight he had occupied. 
He had greatly strengthened the whig organization in the 
state, and had established his reputation as one of the most 
powerful political debaters in the country. His exposition of 
the protective system of duties, which was the principal 
issue of the canvass, was elaborate and powerful. He had 
thoroughly mastered his subject, and his arguments are still 
remembered for the copiousness of their facts, and the close- 
ness and soundness of their logic. 

Mr. Clay's defeat was the more a matter of sorrow with 
Mr. Lincoln because it was, in a measure, unexpected. No 
personal defeat could have been more dispiriting to him thai 
this failure before the people of his political idol. He was 
not only disappointed but disgusted. With his strong con- 
victions of the soundness of the principles of the whig party, 
and his belief in the almost immeasurable superiority of Mr. 
Clay over Mr. Polk, he doubtless had the same misgivings 
that have come to others, touching the capacity of the people 
for self-government, and realized the same distrust of the 
value of honors which could be so unworthily bestowed. It 
was to him a popular decision in the cause of political iniquity 
and bad government. It was not strange, therefore, in the first 
gush of his disappointment, that he made a new resolution to 
let politics alone, and attend more devotedly to the duties of 
his profession. But Mr. Lincoln's ambition, and Mr. Lin- 
coln's friends, more powerful than his ambition, were not 
likely to permit this resolution to have a permanent influence 
upon his career. 

Subsequently, Mr. Lincoln paid a personal visit to Mr. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ( A r > 

Clay, and it is possible that lie needed the influence of this* 
visit to restore a healthy tone to his feelings, and to teach him 
that the person whom his imagination had transformed into a 
demigod was only a man, possessing the full measure of weak- 
nesses common to men. In 1846, Mr. Lincoln learned that 
Mr. Clay had agreed to deliver a speech at Lexington, Ken- 
tucky, in favor of gradual emancipation. He had never seen 
the great Kentuckian, and this event seemed to give him an 
excuse for breaking away from his business, and satisfying his 
curiosity to look his demigod in the face, and hear the music 
of his eloquence. He accordingly went to Lexington, and 
arrived there in time to attend the meeting. 

On returning to his home from this visit, he did not attempt 
to disguise his disappointment. The speech itself was written 
and read. It lacked entirely the spontaneity and fire which 
Mr. Lincoln had anticipated, and was not eloquent at all. At 
the close of the meeting Mr. Lincoln secured an introduction 
to the great orator, and as Mr. Clay knew what a friend to him 
Mr. Lincoln had been, he invited his admirer and partisan to 
Ashland. Xo invitation could have delighted Mr. Lincoln 
more, but the result of his private interview with Mr. Clay was 
no more satisfactory than that which followed the speech. 
Those who have known both men, will not wonder' at this, for 
two men could hardly be more unlike in their motives and man- 
ners than the two thus brought together. One was a proud 
man; the other was a humble man. One was princely in his 
bearing; the other was lowly. One was distant and digni- 
fied ; the other was as simple and teachable as a child. One 
received the deference of men as his due ; the other received 
it with an uncomfortable sense of his unworthiness. 

A friend of Air. Lincoln, who had a long conversation with 
him after his return from Ashland, found that his old enthusi- 
asm w T as gone. Mr. Lincoln said that though Mr. Clay was 
most polished in his manners, and very hospitable, he be- 
trayed a consciousness of superiority that none could mistake. 
He felt that Mr. Clay did not regard him, or any other person 
in his presence, as, in any sense, on an equality with him. In 



96 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

short, he thought that Mr. Clay was overbearing and domi- 
neerino", and that, while he was apparently kind, it was in that 
magnificent and patronizing way which made a sensitive man 
uncomfortable. 

It is quite possible that Mr. Lincoln needed to experience 
this disappointment, and to be taught this lesson. It was, 
perhaps, the only instance in his life in which he had given 
his whole heart to a man without knowing him, or been carried 
away by his imagination into an unbounded zeal on behalf of 
a personal stranger. It made him more cautious in the be- 
stowal of his love. He was, certainly, from that time forward, 
more careful to look on all sides of a man, and on all sides of 
a subject, before yielding to cither his devotion, than ever be- 
fore. If he became slow in moving, it vms because he saw 
more than his own side of every case and question, and recog- 
nized, in advance, such obstacles as would be certain to impede 
his progress. 

Much has been said of Mr. Lincoln's kindness, and mam- 
suppose that he was not brave — that his patient and universal 
love of men was inconsistent with those sterner qualities which 
are necessary to make, not only a true hero, but a true man. 
An incident occurred during the Clay campaign which shows 
how ill-founded this estimate of Mr. Lincoln is. On the occa- 
sion of a great mass convention at Springfield, U. F. Linder, 
Esq., now a resident of Chicago, and a man of rare eloquence, 
made a speech which seemed to rouse the enthusiasm of the 
assemblage to the highest pitch. The speech was very offen- 
sive to some of the democrats who were present — who, indeed, 
proposed to make a personal matter of it. Mr. Linder being 
railed out again, in the course of the meeting, was considered 
in personal danger, if he should attempt to respond. At this 
juncture, Me. Lincoln and Colonel Baker took their places by 
his side, and, Avhen he finished, conducted him to his hotel. 
The ruffians knew both men, and prudently refrained from in- 
terfering with them. On a previous occasion, Mr. Lincoln 
had protected the person of Colonel Baker himself. Baker 
was speaking in a court-house, which had once been a store • 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 97 

house, and, on making- some remarks that were offensive to 
certain political rowdies in the crowd, they cried: "take him 

off' the stand." Immediate confusion ensued, and there was 
an attempt to carry the demand into execution. Directly 
over the speaker's head was an old scuttle, at which it ap- 
peared Mr. Lincoln had been listening to the speech. In an 
instant, Mr. Lincoln's feet came through the scuttle, followed 
by his tall and sinewy frame, and he was standing by Colonel 
Baker's side. He raised his hand, and the assembly subsided 
immediately into silence. "Gentlemen," said Mr. Lincoln, 
"let us not disgrace the age and country in which we live. 
This is a land where freedom of speech is guarantied. Mr. 
Baker has a right to speak, and ought to be permitted to do 
so. I am here to protect him, and no man shall take him 
from this stand if I can prevent it." The suddenness of his 
appearance, his perfect calmness and fairness, and the knowl- 
edge that he would do what lie had promised to do, quieted 
all disturbance, and the speaker concluded his remarks with- 
out difficulty. 

Mr. Lincoln has already been spoken of as a strong party 
man, and his thorough devotion to his party, on some occa- 
sions, though very rarely, led him into hasty expressions and 
hasty actions, quite out of harmony w r ith his usual self-poise 
and good nature. A scene occurred in the room occupied by 
Mr. Lincoln and his particular friend, Judge Davis, at Paris, 
on one occasion, which illustrates this. There was present, 
as a visitor, a young lawyer of the name of Constable, a gen- 
tleman of fine abilities, and at present a judge of the circuit 
court. Mr. Constable was a whig, but had probably been 
disappointed in some of his political aspirations, and did not 
feel that the party had treated him fairly. He was in the 
habit of speaking disparagingly of the policy of the party in 
the treatment of its own friends, and particularly of its young 
men, especially when he found whig leaders to listen to him. 
On this occasion he charged the party with being "old fogy- 
issh," and indifferent to rising men, while the democratic party 
was lauded for the contrast which it presented in this partie- 
7 



98 like tiY a:;i:a;iam mncolx. 

ular. Mr. Lincoln felt the charge as keenly as if it had heen 
a personal one. Indeed, his own experience disproved the 
whole statement. Constable went on, and charged the whig 
party with ingratitude and neglect in his own case. Mr. Lin- 
coln stood with his coat off, shaving himself before his glass. 
lie had heard the charges without saying a word, but when 
Mr. Constable alluded to himself, as having been badly treated, 
he turned fiercely upon him, and said, " Mr. Constable, I un- 
derstand you perfectly, and have noticed for some time back 
that you have been slowly and cautiously picking your way 
over to the democratic party." Both men were angry, and it 
required the efforts of all the others present to keep them from 
fio-htino-. Mr. Lincoln seemed for a time, as one of the spec- 
tators of the scene remarks, to be " terribly willing." Such 
instances as this have been very rare in Mr. Lincoln's life, and 
the fact that he was susceptible to the influence of such motives 
renders his notorious equanimity of temper all the more cred- 
itable to him. The matter was adjusted between him and Mr. 
Constable, and, not long afterwards, the latter justified Mr. 
Lincoln's interpretation of his motives, and was numbered 
among the democrats. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Ttte political biographers of Mr. Lincoln have stated that in 
1840 lie was "induced to accept" the nomination for Congress 
from the Sangamon district. It has already been seen that he 
had aspirations for this place ; and it is quite as well to adopt 
Mr. Lincoln's own frankness and directness, and say that the 
representatives of his wishes secured the nomination for him. 
As a party man, he had well earned any honor in the power 
of his party to bestow. As a man and a politician, his char- 
acter was so sound and so truly noble that his nomination and 
election to Congress would be quite as honorable to his dis- 
trict as to him. 

Having received the nomination, Mr. Lincoln did after the 
manner of Western nominees and "stumped" his district. 
He had abundant material for discussion. During the winter 
of 1845, Texas was admitted to the Union, and the war with 
Mexico was commenced. The tariff of 1842, constructed in 
accordance with the policy of the whig party, had been re- 
pealed. The country had a foreign war on its hands — a war 
which the whigs believed to have been unnecessarily begun, 
and unjustifiably carried on. It had received into the Union a 
new member in the interest of slavery. It had been greatly 
disturbed in its industrial interests by the subversion of the 
protective policy. The issues between the two parties then in 
the political field were positive and well defined. Mr. Lin- 
coln's position on all the principal points at issue was that of 



100 LIFE OF ABRAIIAM LINCOLN. 

the whig party, and the party had no reason to be ashamed of 
its western champion. 

The eminent popularity of Mr. Lincoln in his own district 
was shown by the majority he received over that which it had 
given to Mr. Clay. Although he had made Mr. Clay's cause 
his own, and had advocated his election with an enthusiasm 
which no personal object could have excited in him, he re- 
ceived in his district a majority of one thousand live hundred 
and eleven votes to the nine hundred and fourteen majority 
which the district had given Mr. Clay in 1844. He undoubt- 
edly was supported by more than the strength of his party, 
for his majority was unprecedented in the district, and has 
since had no parallel. It was not reached, on a much larger 
vote, by General Taylor in 1848. There is no question that 
this remarkable majority was the result of the popular faith 
in Mr. Lincoln's earnestness, conscientiousness and integrity. 

He took his seat in the thirtieth Congress, December 6th, 
1847, and was from the first entirely at home. He was no 
novice in politics or legislation. To the latter he had served 
a thorough apprenticeship in the Illinois legislature. To the 
study and discussion of the former, he had devoted perhaps 
the severest efiWts of his life. He understood every phase of 
the great questions which agitated Congress and divided the 
people. Unlike many politicians who engage in the harangues 
of a political canvass, he had made him sell the master of the 
subjects he discussed. He had been a debater, and not a de- 
claimer. He had entertained a deeper interest in questions of 
public concern than he had felt in his own election ; and he 
was at once recognized as the peer of his associates in the 
House. He derived considerable prominence from the fact 
that he was the only whig member from Illinois, a fact almost 
entirely due to his own presence and influence in the district 
which elected him. 

It is noticeable here that Stephen A. Douglas took his seat 
in the Senate of the United States during this same session. 
They met first as representatives in the Illinois legislature. 
Mr. Douglas was the younger, the more adroit, the swifter in 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 101 

a political race. He had had with him the large democratic 

majority of the stale, and had moulded it to his purposes. 
He had taken a step — perhaps many steps — in advance of Mr. 
Lincoln; but it seemed destined that the tallest man in the 
House and the shortest man in the Senate should keep in sight 
of each other, until the time should come when they should 
stand out before their own state and the country as the cham- 
pions respectively of the antagonistic principles and policieu 
which divided the American people. 

It is interesting, at the close of a great rebellion, undertaken 
on behalf of slavery, to look back to this Congress, and see 
how, in the interests and associations of the old whig party, 
those men worked in harmony who have since been, or who, 
if they had lived would have been, so widely separated in 
feeling and action. John Quincy Adams voted on most ques- 
tions with Robert Toombs ; George Ashmun, afterwards pres- 
ident of the convention that nominated Mr. Lincoln for the 
presidency, with Alexander H. Stephens, afterwards vice- 
president of the Southern Confederacy ; Jacob Collamer with 
Thomas Butler King, and Samuel F. Vinton with Henry W. 
Milliard. History must record that the Mexican war was 
undertaken in the interest of human slavery; yet, touching 
the questions arising out of this war, and questions directly 
associated with or bearing upon it, these men of the old whig 
partv acted together. The slaveholder then yielded to party 
what he has since denied to patriotism, and patriotism aban- 
doned a party which held out to it a constant temptation to 
complicity with slavery. 

Mr. Polk, at that time the President of the United States, 
was evidently anxious to justify the war which he had com- 
menced against Mexico, and to vindicate his own action before 
the American people, if not before his own judgment and con- 
science. His messages to Congress were burdened with this 
effort ; and Mr. Lincoln had hardly become wonted to his seat 
when he made an unsuccessful effort to bring the President to a 
statement of facts, upon which Congress and the country might 
either verify or falsify his broad and general asseverations. On 



102 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the twenty-second of December, he introduced a series of res- 
olutions* which, had they been adopted, would have given the 
President an opportunity to furnish the grounds of his allega- 
tions, and set himself right before the nation. These resolu- 
tions are remarkable for their definite statement of the points 
actually at issue between the administration and the whig 
party ; but they found no advocates among Air. Polk's friends. 
Laid over under the rule, they were not called up again by Mr. 
Lincoln himself, but they formed the thesis of a speech de- 
livered by him on the following twelfth of January, in which 
he fully expressed his views on the whole subject. 

The opposition in this Congress were placed in a very diffi- 
cult and perplexing position. They hated the war ; they be- 

* Whereas, The President of the United States, in his message of 
May 11, 1846, has declared that "the Mexican Government not only re- 
fused to receive him [the envoy of the United States,] or listen to his 
propositions, but, after a long continued series of menaces, has at last 
invaded our territory, and shed the blood of our fellow citizens on our 
own soil:" 

And again, in his message of December S, 1846, that "We had ample 
cause of war against Mexico long before the breaking out of hostilities; 
but even then we forbore to take redress into our own hands until 
Mexico herself became the aggressor, by invading our soil in hostile 
array, and shedding the blood of our citizens:" 

And yet again, in his message of December 7, 1847, that " The Mex- 
ican Government refused even to hear the terms of adjustment which 
he [our minister of peace] was authorized to propose, and finally, under 
wholly unjustifiable pretexts, involved the two countries in war, by in- 
vading the territory of the State of Texas, striking the first blow, and 
shedding the blood of our citizens on our own soil:" and, 

Whereas, This House is desirous to obtain a full knowledge of all 
the facts which, go to establish whether the particular spot on which the 
blood of our citizens was so shed was or was not at that time "our own 
soil:" therefore, 

Resolved h>; the House of Representatives, That the President of the- 
United States be respectfully requested to inform tin's house — 

1st. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed, 
as in his messages declared, was or was not within the territory of 
Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819, until the Mexican revolution. 

2d. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory which was 
wrested from Spain by the revolutionary Government of Mexico. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 103 

lievcd it to have been unnecessarily begun by the act of the 
United States, and not by th ' .Mexico ; they were 

accused of being treacherous to the cause and honor of the 
country because they opposed the war in which the country 
was engaged ; they felt obliged to vote supplies to the army 
because it would have been inhuman to do otherwise, yet 
this act was seized upon by the President to show that hid 
position touching the war was sustained by them.; they felt 
compelled to condemn the commander-in-chief of the armies, 
sitting in the White House, and to vote thanks to the generals 
who had successfully executed his orders in the field. Men 
picked their way through these difficulties according to the 
wisdom given to them. The opposition usually voted together, 
though there was more or less of division on minor points and 
matters of policy. 

3d. Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of people, 
which settlement has existed ever since long before the Texas revolu- 
tion, and until its inhabitants fled before the approach of the United 
States army. 

4th. Whether that settlement is or is not isolated from any and all 
other settlements by the Gulf and the Rio Grande on the south and west, 
and by wide uninhabited regions on the north and east. 

5th. Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority of them, 
or any of them, have ever submitted themselves to the government or 
laws of Texas or of the United States, by consent or by compulsion, 
either by accepting office, or voting at elections, or paying tax, or serv- 
ing on juries, or having process served upon them, or in any other way. 

6th. Whether the people of that .settlement did or did not flee from 
the approach of the United States army, leaving unprotected their 
homes and their growing crops, before the blood was shed, as in the mes- 
sages stated; and whether the first blood, so .shed, was or was not shed 
within the inclosure of one of the people who had thus fled from it. 

7th. Whether our citizens, whose blood was shed, as in his messages 
declared, were or were not, at that time, armed officers and soldiers, 
sent into that settlement by the military order of the President, through 
the Secretary of War. 

8th. Whether the military force of the United States was or was 
not so sent into that settlement after General Taylor had more than 
once intimated to the War Department that, in his opinion, no such 
movement was necessary to the defense or protection of Texas. 



104 JJi'i; OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Mr. Hudson of Massachus< tts introduced aresolution which 
covered essentially the question of abandoning the Avar — of 
restoring everything to the old status. Mr. Lincoln voted to 
lay this resolution on the table, and, when it came up for 
adoption, voted against it. The writer finds no record of the 
reasons for these votes. Whatever they may have been, they 
seemed good to him ; <*ad he took pains a few days afterward 
to show that they could not have grown out of any friendship 
to the war. Indeed, on the very day which saw these votes 
recorded, he had an opportunity to vote that the war " was 
unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President 
of the United States," in company with nearly all the whig 
members of the House, southern no less than northern. The 
same men voted thanks to General Taylor for his brilliant 
achievements in the war. 

The speech of Mr. Lincoln on the twelfth of January, in 
committee of the whole House, was thoroughly characteristic 
of the author. Simple, direct, exact in its comprehension of 
the points at issue, without a superfluous word or sentence, aa 
closely logical as if it were the work of a professor of dialec- 
tics, it was the ecpial if not the superior of any speech deliv- 
ered during the session. 

Mr. Lincoln spoke as follows: 

"Mr. Chairman: Some, if not all, of the gentlemen on the other 
side of the House, who have addressed the committee Avithin the last 
two days, haA'e spoken rather complainingly, if I have rightly under- 
stood them, of the vote given a Aveek or ten days ago, declaring that 
the war with Mexico was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally com- 
menced by the President. I admit that such a \ r otc should not be given 
in mere party Avantonness, and that the one given is justly censurable, 
if it have no other or better foundation. I am one of those who joined 
in that vote ; and did so under my best impression of the truth of the 
case. Hoav I got this impression, and Iioav it may possibly be removed, 
I Avill noAV try to sIioav. When the Avar began, it Avas my opinion that 
all those who, because of knowing too little, or because of knowing too 
much, could not conscientiously approve the conduct of the President 
(in the beginning of it), should, nevertheless, as good citizens and pat- 
riots, remain silent on that point, at least till the Avar should be ended 
Some leading Democrats, including ex-President Van Buren,have taken 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 105 

this same view, as T understand them; and 1 Ih red to it, and acted 
upon it. until since 1 took my seal h I bh ak I should still ad- 

here to it, were it not that the Pre ends will not allow 

it to be so. Besides the continual effort of the President to argue 
every silent vote given for supplies into an indorsement of the justice 
and wisdom of his conduct: besides that singularly candid paragraph 
in his late message, in which he tells us thai I with great una- 

nimity (only two in the Senate and fourteen in the House dissenting) 
had declared that 'by the act of the Republic of Mexico a state of war 
exists between that Government and the United when the 

same journals that informed him of this, also informed him that, when 
that declaration stood disconnected from the question of supplies, sixty- 
seven in the House, and not fourteen, merely, voted against it; besides 
this open attempt to prove by telling the truth, what he could not prove 
by telling the whole truth, demanding of all who will not submit to bo 
misrepresented, in justice to themselves, to speak out; besides all this, 
bne of my colleagues [Mr. Richardson], at a very early day in the ses- 
sion, brought in a set of resolutions, expressly indorsing the original 
justice of the war on the part of the President. Upon these resolu- 
tions, when they shall be put on their passage, I shall be compelled to 
vote ; so that I can not be silent if I would. Seeing this, I went about 
preparing myself to give the vote understandingly, when it should come. 
I carefully examined the President's messages, to ascertain what he 
himself had said and proved upon the point. The result of this examin- 
ation was to make the impression, that, taking for true all the Presi- 
dent states as facts, he falls far short of proving his justification; and 
that the President would have gone further with his proof, if it had not 
been for the small matter that the truth would not permit him. Under 
the impression thus made I gave the vote before mentioned. I propose 
now to give, concisely, the process of the examination I made, and how 
I reached the conclusion I did. 

" The President, in his first message of May, IS 40, declares that the 
soil was ours on which hostilities were commenced by Mexico ; and lie 
repeats that declaration, almost in the same language, in each successive 
annual message — thus showing that he esteems that point a highly 
essential one. In the importance of that point I entirely agree with 
the President. To my judgment, it is the v upon which he 

should be justified or condemned. In his message of December, 1846, 
it seems to have occm^red to him, as is certainly true, that title, owner- 
ship to soil, or anything else, is not a simple fact, but is a conclusion 
following one or more simple facts ; and that it was incumbent upon 
him to present the facts from which he concluded the soil was ours ou 
which the first blood of the war was shed. 

" Accordingly, a little below the middle of page twelve, in the mes- 



106 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Bage last referred to, he enters upon that task ; forming an issue and 
introducing testimony, extending the whole to a little below the middle 
of page fourteen- Now, I propose to try to show that the whole of 
this — issue and evidence — is, from beginning to end, the sheerest decep- 
tion. The issue, as he presents it, is in these words : ' But there are 
those who, conceding all this to be true, assume the ground that the 
true western boundary of Texas is the Nueces, instead of the Rio 
Grande; and that, therefore, in marching our ai*my to the east bank of 
the latter river, we passed the Texan line, and invaded the territory of 
Mexico.' Now, this issue is made up of two affirmatives and no nega- 
tive. The main deception of it is, that it assumes as true that one rivei 
or the other is necessarily the boundary, and cheats the superficial 
thinker entirely out of the idea that possibly the boundary is somewhere 
between the two, and not actually at either. A further deception is, that 
it will let in evidence which a true issue would exclude. A true issue, 
made by the President, would be about as follows ; ' I say the soil teas 
ours on which the first blood was shed; there are those who say it 
was not.' 

"I now proceed to examine the President's evidence, as applicable to 
such an issue. When that evidence is analyzed, it is all included in the 
following propositions : 

" 1. That the Rio Grande was the western boundary of Louisiana, 
as we purchased it of France in 1803. 

"12. That the Republic of Texas always claimed the Rio Grande as 
her western boundary. 

" 3. That by various acts, she had claimed it on paper. 

"4. That Santa Anna, in his treaty with Texas, recognized the Rio 
Grande as her boundary. 

"5. That Texas before, and the United States after, annexation, had 
exercised jurisdiction beyond the Nueces, between the two rivers. 

" 0. That our Congress understood the boundary of Texas to extend 
beyond the Nueces. 

" Now for each of these in its turn : 

" His first item is, that the Rio Grande was the western boundary 
of Louisiana, as we purchased it of France in 1803; and, seeming to 
expect this to be disputed, he argues over the amount of nearly a page 
to prove it true; at the end of which, he lets us know that, by the 
treaty of 1819, we sold to Spain the whole country, from the Rio 
Grande eastward to the Sabine. Now, admitting for the present, that 
the Rio Grande was the boundary of Louisiana, what, under heaven, 
had that to do with the present boundary between us and Mexico? 
How. Mr. Chairman, the line that once divided your land from mine 
can still be the boundary between us after I have sold my land to you, 
Ls, to me, beyond all comprehension. And how any man, with an honest 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 107 

purpose only of proving the truth, could ever have thought of intro- 
ducing such a fact to prove such an issue, is equally incomprehensible. 
T!ie outrage upon common right, oi our own what we have 

once sold, merely because it was ours bejbn we sold it, is only equaled 
by the outrage on common sense of any attempt to justify it. 

"The President's next piece of evidence is, that 'The Republic of 
Texas always claimed this river (Rio Gr. I boundary.' 

That is not true, in fact. Texas has claimed it, but she has not always 
claimed it. There is, at least, one distinguished exception. Her State • 
Constitution — the p t solemn and well-considered act — that 

which may, without impropriety, be called her last will and testament, 
revoking all others — makes no such claim. But suppose she had always 
claimed it. Has not Mexico always claimed the contrary? So that 
there is but claim against claim, leaving nothing proved until we get 
back of the claims, and find which has the better found 

" Though not in the order in which the President presents his evi- 
dence, I now consider that class of his statements, which are, in sub- 
stance, nothing more than that Texas has by various acts of her Con- 
vention and Congress, claimed the Rio Grande as her boundary — on 
paper. I mean here what he says about the fixing of the Rio Grande 
as her boundary, in her old Constitution (not her State Constitution,) 
about forming congressional districts, counties, etc. Now, all this is but 
naked claim; and what I have already said about claims is strictly ap- 
plicable to this. If I should claim your land by word of mouth, that 
certainly would not make it mine ; and if I were to claim it by a deed 
which I had made myself, and with which you had nothing to do, the 
claim would be quite the same in substance, or rather in utter noth- 
ingness. 

"I next consider the President's statement that Santa Anna, in his 
treaty with Texas, recognized the Rio Grande as the western boundary 
of Texas. Besides the position so often taken that Santa Anna, while 
a prisoner of war — a captive — could not bind Mexico by a treaty, which 
I diem conclusive; besides this, I wish to say something in relation to 
this treaty, so called by the President, with Santa Anna. If any man 
would like to be amused by a sight at that little thing, which the Presi- 
dent calls by that big name, he can have it by turning to Niles' Register, 
volume 50, page 336. And if any one should suppose that Niles' Reg- 
ister is a curious repository of so mighty a document as a solemn treaty 
between nations, I can only say that I learned, to a tolerable degree of 
certainty, by inquiry at the State Department, that the President him- 
self never saw it anywhere else. By the way, I believe I should not 
err if I were to declare, that during the first ten years of the existence 
of that document, it was never by anybody called a treaty; that it was 
never so called till the President, in his extremity, attempted, by so 



108 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

calling it, to wring something from it in justification of himself in con- 
nection with the Mexican war. It has none of the distinguishing fea- 
tures of a treaty. It does not call itself a treaty. Santa Anna does 
not therein assume to bind Mexico ; he assumes only to act as President, 
Commander-in-chief of the Mexican army and navy; stipulates that the 
then present hostilities should cease, and that he would not himself take 
up arms, nor influence the Mexican people to take up arms against Texas, 
during the existence of the war of independence. He did not recognize 
the independence of Texas; he did not assume to put an end to the war, 
but clearly indicated his expectation of its continuance ; he did not say 
one word about boundary, and most probably never thought of it. It 
is stipulated therein that the Mexican forces should evacuate the terri- 
tory of Texas, passing to the other side of the Rio Grande; and in another 
article it is stipulated, that to prevent collisions between the armies, 
the Texan army should not approach nearer than within five leagues 
■ — of what is not said — but clearly, from the object stated, it is of the 
Rio Grande. Now, if this is a treaty recognizing the Rio Grande as the 
boundary of Texas, it contains the singular feature of stipulating that 
Texas shall not go within five leagues of her own boundary. 

"Next comes the evidence of Texas before annexation, and the 
United States afterward, exercising jurisdiction beyond the Nueces, and 
between the two rivers. This actual exercise of jurisdiction is the very 
class or quality of evidence we want. It is excellent so far as it goes; 
but does it go far enough? He tells us it went beyond the Nueces, but 
he does not tell us it went to the Rio Grande. He tells us jurisdiction 
was exercised between the two rivers, but he does not tell us it was ex- 
ercised over all the territory between them. Some simple-minded peo- 
ple think it possible to cross one river and go beyond it, without going 
all the way to the next ; that jurisdiction may be exercised between two 
rivers without covering all the country between them. I know a man, 
not very unlike myself who exercises jurisdiction over a piece of land 
between the Wabash and the Mississippi ; and yet so far is this from 
being all there is between those rivers, that it is just one hundred and 
fifty-two feet long by fifty wide, and no part of it much within a hund- 
red miles of either. He has a neighbor between him and the Missis- 
sippi — that is, just across the street, in that direction — whom, I am sure, 
he could neither persuade nor force to give up his habitation; but which, 
nevertheless, he could certainly annex, if it were to be done, by merely 
standing on his own side of the street and claiming it, or even sitting 
down and writing a deed for it. 

" But next, the President tells us, the Congress of the United States 
understood the State of Texas they admitted into the Union to extend 
beyond the Nueces. Well, I suppose they did — I certainly so understand 
it — but how far beyond ? That Congress did not understand it to ex- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 109 

tend clear to the Rio Grande, is quite certain by the fact of their joint 
resolutions for admission expressly leaving all questions of boundary to 
future adjustment. And, it may be added, that Texas herself is proved 
to have had the same understanding of it that our Congress had, by the 
fact of the exact conformity of her new Constitution to those resolu- 
tions. 

" I am now through the whole of the President's evidence ; and it ia 
a singular fact, that if any one should declare the President sent the 
army into the midst of a settlement of Mexican people, who had never 
submitted, by consent or by force to the authority of Texas or of the 
United States, and that there, and thereby, the first blood of the war was 
shed, there is not one word in all the President has said which would 
cither admit or deny the declaration. In this strange omission chiefly 
consists the deception of the President's evidence— an omission which, 
it does seem to me, could scarcely have occurred but by design. My 
way of living leads me to be about the courts of justice : and there I 
have some times seen a good lawyer, struggling for his client's neck, in a 
desperate case, employing every artifice to work round, befog, and cover 
up with many words some position pressed upon him by the prosecution, 
which he dared not admit, and yet andd not deny. Party bias may help 
to make it appear so ; but, with all the allowance I can make for such 
bias, it still does appear to me that just such, and from just such neces- 
sity, are the President's struggles in this case. 

" Some time after my colleague (Mr. Richardson) introduced the 
resolutions I have mentioned, I introduced a preamble, resolution, and 
interrogatories, intended to draw the President out, if possible, on this 
hitherto untrodden ground. To show their relevancy, I propose to state 
my understanding of the true rule for ascertaining the boundary be- 
tween Texas and Mexico. It is, that xchercver Texas was exercising ju- 
risdiction was hers ; and wherever Mexico was exercising jurisdiction 
was hers ; and that whatever separated the actual exercise of jurisdic- 
tion of the one from that of the other, was the true boundary between 
them. if. as is probably true, Texas was exercising jurisdiction along 
the western bank of the Nueces, and Mexico was exercising it along 
the eastern bank of the Rio Grande, then neither river Avas the boundary, 
but the uninhabited country between the two was. The extent of our 
territory in that region depended not on any treaty- fixed boundary (for 
no treaty had attempted it), but on revolution. Any people a-nywhere, 
being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake 
off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. 
This is a most valuable, a most sacred right — a right which, we hope 
and believe, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases 
in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to 
exercise it. Any portion of such people that can may revolutionize, 



110 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit. More 
than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, 
putting down a minority, intermingled with, or near about them, who 
may oppose their movements. Such minority was precisely the case of 
the Tories of our own Revolution. It is a quality of revolutions not to 
go by old lines, or old laws ; but to break up both, and make new ones. 
As to the country now in question, we bought it of France in 1803. and 
6old it to Spain in 1S19, according to the President's statement. After 
this, all Mexico, including Texas, revolutionized against Spain; and still 
later, Texas revolutionized against Mexico. In my view, just so far as 
she carried her revolution, by obtaining the actum, willing or unwilling 
submission of the people, so far the country Avas hers, and no further. 

" Now, sir, for the purpose of obtaining the very best evidence as to 
whether Texas had actually carried her revolution to the place where 
the hostilities of the present war commenced, let the President answer 
the interrogatories I proposed, as before mentioned, or some other simi- 
lar ones. Let him answer fully, fairly and candidly. Let him answer 
with fads, and not with arguments. Let him remember lie sits where 
Washington sat: and, so remembering, let him answer as Washington 
would answer. As a nation shouh} not, and the Almighty will not, be 
evaded, so let him attempt no evasion, no equivocation. And if, so an- 
swering, he can show that the soil was ours where the first blood of the 
war was shed — that it was not within an inhabited country, or, if within 
such, that the inhabitants had submitted themselves to the civil author- 
ity of Texas, or of the United States, and that the same is true of the 
site of Fort Brown — then I am with him for his justification. In that 
case, I shall be most happy to reverse the vote I gave the other day. .1 
have a selfish motive for desiring that the President may do this , 1 ex- 
pect to give some votes, in connection with the war, which, without his 
so doing, will be of doubtful propriety, in my own judgment, but which 
will be free from the doubt, if he does so. But if he can nut or trill not 
do this — if, on any pretense, or no pretense, he shall refuse or omit it — 
then I shall be fully convinced, of what 1 more than suspect already, 
that he is deeply conscious of being in the wrong : that he feels the 
blood of this war, like the blood of Abel, is crying to heaven against 
him ; that he ordered General Taylor into the midst of a peaceful Mexi- 
can settlement, purposely to bring on a war; that originally having some 
strong motive — what I will not stop now to give my opinion concern- 
ing — to involve the two countries in a war, and trusting to escape 
scrutiny by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of 
military glory — that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood — 
that serpent's eye that charms to destroy — he plunged into it, and has 
swept on "and on, till, disappointed in his calculation of the ease with 
which Mexico might be subdued, he now finds himself he knows not 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Ill 

where. How like the half insane mumbling of a fever dream is the 
whole war part of the late mes age ! At one time telling us that Mexico 
has nothing whatever that we can get but territory; at another, show- 
ing us how we can support the war by levying contributions on Mexico. 
At one time hrging the national honor, the security of the future, tho 
prevention of foreign interference, and even the good of Mexico herself, 
as among the objects of the war; at another, telling us that, 'to reject 
indemnity by refusing to accept a cession of territory, would be to 
abandon all our just demands, and to wage the war, bearing all its ex- 
penses, without, a purpose or definite object.' So, then, the national honor, 
security of the future, and everything but territorial indemnity, may he 
considered the no purposes and indefinite objects of the war! But hav- 
ing it now settled that territorial indemnity is the only object, we are 
urged to seize, by legislation here, all that he was content to take a few 
months ago, and the whole province of Lower California to boot, and 
to still carry on the war — to take all we are fighting for, and still fight 
on Again, the President is resolved, under all circumstances, to have 
full territorial indemnity for the-expenses of the war; but he forgets to 
tell us how we are to get the excess after those expenses shall have sur- 
passed the value of the whole of the Mexican territory. So, again, he 
insists that the separate national existence of Mexico shall be main- 
tained ; but he does not tell us how this can be done after we shall have 
taken all her territory. Lest the questions I here suggest be considered 
speculative merely, let me be indulged a moment in trying to show they 
are not. 

"The war has gone on some twenty months, for the expenses of 
which, together with an inconsiderable old score, the President now 
claims about one half of the Mexican territory, and that by far the 
better half, so far as concerns our ability to make anything out of it. 
It is comparatively uninhabited; so that we could establish land offices 
in it, and raise some money in that way. -But the other half is already 
inhabited, as I understand it, tolerably densely for the nature of the 
country ; and all its lands, or all that are valuable, already appropriated 
ar, private property. How, then, are we to make anything out of these 
lands with this incumbrance on them, or how remove the incumbrance? 
I suppose no one will say we should kill the people, or drive them 
out, or make slaves of them, or even confiscate their property? How, 
then, can we make much out of this part of the territory? If the 
prosecution of the war has, in expenses, already equaled the better half 
of the country, how long its future prosecution will be in equaling the 
less valuable half is not a speculative but a practical question, pressing 
closely upon us , and yet it is a question which the President seems 
never to have thought of. 

"As to the mode of terminating the war and securing peace, the 



112 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

President is equally wandering and indefinite. First, it is to be done 
by a more vigorous prosecution of the war in the vital parts of the en- 
emy's country; and, after apparently talking himself tired on this point, 
the President drops down into a half despairing tone, and tells us, that 
'with a people distracted and divided by contending factions, and a 
government subject to constant changes, by successive revolutions, the 
continued success of our arms may fail to obtain a satisfactory peace.' 
Then he suggests the propriety of wheedling the Mexican people to 
desert the counsels of their own leaders, and, trusting in our protection, 
to set up a government from which we can secure a satisfactory peace, 
telling us that 'this may become the only mode of obtaining such a peace. 
But soon he falls into doubt of this too, and then drops back on to the 
already half-abandoned ground of 'more vigorous prosecution/ All 
this shows that the President is in no wise satisfied with his own po- 
sitions. First, he takes up one, and, in attempting to argue us into it, 
he argues himself out of it; then seizes another, and goes through the 
same process; and then, confused at being able to think of nothing new, 
he snatches up the old one again, which he has some time before cast 
off. His mind, tasked beyond its power, is running hither and thither, 
like some tortured creature on a burning surface, finding no position on 
which it can settle down and be at ease. 

" Again, it is a singular omission in this message, that it nowhere in- 
timates when the President expects the war to terminate. At its begin- 
ning, General Scott was, by this same President, driven into disfavor, 
if not disgrace, for intimating that peace could not be conquered in less 
than three or four months. But now at the end of about twenty 
months, during which time our arms have given us the most splendid 
successes — every department, and every part, land and water, officers 
and privates, regulars and volunteers, doing all that men could do, and 
hundreds of things which it had ever before been thought that men 
could not do; after all this, this same President gives us a long message 
without showing us that, as to the end, he has himself even an imaginary 
conception. As I have before said, he knows not where he is. He is a 
bewildered, confounded, and miserably-perplexed men. God grant he 
may be able to show that there is not something about his.conscience 
more painful than all his mental perplexity." 

With this speech on record, it is strange that the genuine 
literary abilities of the man were so long and so persistently 
ignored by literary people. There were men who voted for 
him for the presidency more than twelve years afterwards — 
twelve years of culture and development to him — who were 
surprised to find his messages grammatically constructed, and 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 113 

who suspected the intervention of a secretary whenever any 
touch of elegance appeared in his writings. 

Mr. Lincoln had a position on the Committee on Post-offices 
and Post-roads, and, from the knowledge in his possession, felt 
called upon a few days previous to the speech on the war to 
expose a difficulty between the Postmaster-general and a 
transportation company, anxious to get the "Great Southern 
Mail" contract, and to get a better contract than the depart- 
ment had offered. The matter had excited some interest in 
Congress, and Mr. Lincoln showed a faithful study of the 
facts of the case in his speech and his freedom from any party 
feeling in the matter, by supporting the position of the Post- 
master-general. 

On the 1st of June, 1848, the National Whig Convention 
met at Philadelphia to nominate a candidate for the presidency, 
and Mr. Lincoln was among its members. Mr. Polk, by his 
war with Mexico, had been engaged, much against his incli- 
nations, in manufacturing available if not able candidates for 
his own place, two of whom afterwards achieved it. General 
Taylor had become a hero. The brilliancy of his victories 
and the modesty of his dispatches had awakened in his behalf 
the enthusiastic admiration of the American people, without 
distinction of party. He was claimed by the whigs as a 
member of that party, and regarded by them as the one man 
in the Union by whose popularity they might hope to win the 
power they coveted. The majority would doubtless have pre- 
ferred Mr. Clay, but Mr. Clay had been their candidate, and 
had been beaten. Mr. Lincoln would have been glad to sup- 
port Mr. Clay, it is not doubted, but he shared in the feeling 
of the majority concerning his " availability/' It is possible that 
his visit to Mr. Clay, and its unsatisfactory results, already 
alluded to, had somewhat blunted his devotion and subdued 
his enthusiasm on behalf of the great chieftain. Certain it is 
that he was among those who believed that General Taylor 
and not Mr. Clay should be the nominee of his party. 

Congress had continued its session into the summer, either 
for purposes of business, or with the design to control the 
8 



114 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

nominating conventions, and do something to direct the cam- 
paign , and when the nominations were made it did according 
to its custom, and immediately commenced the campaign in a 
series of speeches About two months after General Taylor 
was nominated, (July twenty-seventh,) Mr. Lincoln secured 
the floor, and made a speech concerning the points at issue 
between the two parties, and the merits of the respective 
candidates, General Cass having received the nomination of 
the democratic party. It was a telling, trenchant talk, rather 
than a speech — more like one of his stump orations in Illinois 
than like his previous efforts in the House. As a campaign 
harangue, touching the salient features of the principal ques- 
tions in debate, and revealing the weak points of one candidate 
and the strong points of the other, it could not have been im- 
proved. Considered as a part of the business which he was 
sent to Washington to perform, it was execrable. He did 
what others did, and what his partisan supporters expected 
him to do ; but his own sense of propriety must have suggest- 
ed to him, or ought to have suggested to him if it did not, 
the indecency of the practice of president-making in Congress. 
In the light of subsequent events, the speech contains some 
passages that are very curious and suggestive. In revealing 
the position and policy of General Taylor in 1848, he was 
unconsciously marking out his own in 1860 and 1864. Gen- 
eral Taylor, in a letter to Mr. Allison, had said, "upon the 
subject of the tariff, the currency, the improvement of our 
great highways, rivers, lakes and harbors, the will of the 
people, as expressed through their representatives in Congress, 
ought to be respected and carried out by the executive." 
Mr. Lincoln, in remarking upon this, said: "The people say 
to General Taylor, 'if you are elected, shall we have a national 
bank ? ' He answers, ' Your will, gentlemen, not mine.' 
'What about the tariff?' 'Say yourselves.' 'Shall our riv- 
ers and harbors be improved?' ' Just as you please. If you 
desire a bank, an alteration of the tariff, internal improve- 
ments, any or all, I will not hinder you ; if you do not desire 
them, I will not attempt to force them on you. Send up your 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 115 

members of Qbngress from the various districts, with opinions 
according to your own, and if they are for these measures, or 
any of them, I shall have nothing to oppose; if they arc not 
for them, I shall not, by any appliances whatever, attempt to 
dragoon them into their adoption.'" From this point Mr. 
Lincoln went on to show in what respect a president is a 
representative of the people. He said: "In a certain sense, 
and to a certain extent, he is a representative of the people. 
He is elected by them as Congress is. But can he, in the na- 
ture of things, know the wants of the people as Avell as three 
hundred other men coming from all the various localities of the 
nation? If so, where is the propriety of having a Congress?" 

There is much in this exposition of General Taylor's posi- 
tion to remind us of that upon which the speaker himself 
subsequently stood, when invested with the powers of the 
chief magistracy. 

Mr. Lincoln's dissection of General Cass' position upon the 
questions of the canvass, was effected with characteristic neat- 
ness and thoroughness. Alluding to the subject of internal 
improvements Mr. Lincoln said, "My internal improvement 
colleague (Mr. Wentworth) stated on this floor the other day 
that he was satisfied Cass was for improvements because that 
he had voted for all the bills that he (AVentworth) had. So 
far, so good. But Mr. Polk vetoed some of these very bills; 
the Baltimore Convention passed a set of resolutions anion o- 
other things approving these vetoes, and Cass declares in his 
letter accepting the nomination that he has carefully read these 
resolutions, and that he adheres to them as firmly as he ap- 
proves them cordially. In other words, General Cass voted 
for the bills, and thinks the President did right to veto them ; 
and his friends here are amiable enough to consider him as 
being one side or the other, just as one or the other may 
correspond with their own respective inclinations. My col- 
league admits that the platform declares against the constitu- 
tionality of a general system of improvements, and that Gen- 
eral Cass indorses the platform, but he still thinks General 
Cass is in favor of some sort of improvements. "Well, what 



116 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

arc tlicy? As he is against general objects, those he is for 
must be particular and local. Now this is taking the subject 
precisely by the wrang end. Particularity — expending the 
money of the -whole people for an object which will benefit 
only a portion of them — is the greatest real objection to im- 
provements, and has been so held by General Jackson, Mr. 
Polk, and all others, I believe, till now." Certainly this was 
a very logical exposition of General Cass on internal improve- 
ments; and the charge of double dealing or gross inconsist- 
ency which it involved was unansAverable. 

Mr. Lincoln tried his powers of ridicule on General Cass 
on this occasion. One of his palpable hits has already been 
quoted in connection with the history of Mr. Lincoln's par- 
ticipation in the Black Hawk war, in which he draws a par- 
allel between his own bloodless experiences and those of the 
democratic candidate. Quoting extracts to show how General 
Cass had vacillated in his action on the "Wilmot Proviso, he 
added, " These extracts show that in 1846 General Cass was 
for the Proviso at once, that in March, 1847, he was still for 
it, but not just then ; and that in December he was against it 
altogether. This is a true index to the whole man. "When 
the question was raised in 1846, he was in a blustering hurry 
to take ground for it, * * * but soon he began to see glimpses 
of the great democratic ox-gad waving in his face, and to 
hear indistinctly, a voice saying, ' back ! back, sir ! back a 
little!' lie shakes his head, and bats his eyes, and blunders 
back to his position of March, 1847 ; but still the gad waves, 
and the voice grows more distinct and sharper still — 'back, 
sir ! back, I say ! further back ! ' and back he goes to the 
]K>sition of December, 1847 ; at which the gad is still, and 
the voice soothingly says — ' so ! stand still at that ! ' ' The 
homely illustration, culled from his early experiences, was 
certainly forcible, if not elegant. 

In this political canvass, the whigs found themselves nearly 
as much perplexed in the treatment of the Mexican war as 
they had been in Congi'ess. They had selected as their can- 
didate a man whose reputation had been made by the success- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 117 

fill prosecution of ;i Avar which they had opposed. They 
were charged, of course, with inconsistency by their oppo- 
nents, and were placed in the awkward position of being 
obliged to draw nice distinctions. It is possible that they de- 
served the embarrassment from which they suffered. General 
Taylor had, beyond dispute, been nominated because he was 
a military hero, and not because he had any natural or ac- 
quired fitness for the presidency. The war had made him ; 
and the whigs had seized upon this product of the Avar as an 
instrument by which they might acquire power. Mr. Lincoln 
alluded to this in his speech, but showed that while the whigs 
had believed the Avar to be unnecessarily and unconstitution- 
ally begun, they had voted supplies, and sent their men. 
"Through suffering and death," said he, "by disease and in 
battle, they have endured, and fought, and fallen with you. 
Clay and Webster each gave a son, never to be returned. 
From the state of my own residence, besides other worthy 
but less knoAvn whig names, avc sent Marshall, Morrison, 
Baker and Hardin ; they all fought, and one fell, and in the 
fall of that one Ave lost our best Avhig man. Nor Avere the 
whigs few in numbers, or laggard in the day of danger. In 
that fearful, bloody, breathless struggle at Buena Vista, Avhere 
each man's hard task was to beat back five foes, or die him- 
self, of the five high officers avIio perished, four Avere whigs." 
With an allusion to the distinction betAveen the cause of the 
President in beginning the Avar, and the cause of the country 
after it Avas begun, Mr. Lincoln closed his speech. 

During the time these presidential discussions Avere o-oinor 
on in Congress, Mr. Lincoln Avas in close communication with 
the Avhig leaders in Illinois, laying out the Avork of the can- 
vass, and trying to convert the active men of the party to his 
OAvn ideas of sound policy in the conduct of the campaign. 
Indeed, he began this Avork before General Taylor AA r as nomi- 
nated, under the evident conviction that he would be the can- 
didate, and the strong desire that he should be. As early in 
the year as February tAventieth, he Avrote a letter to U. F. 
Linder, a prominent whig orator of Illinois, on this subject. 



113 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

It betrays the perplexity to which more than one allusion has 
been made, of the whigs at the time. Mr. Lineoln says, in 
this letter, " In law, it is good policy to never plead what you 
need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot. 
Reflect on this well before you proceed. The application I 
mean to make of this rule is that you should simply go for 
General Taylor, because you can take some democrats and 
lose no whigs ; but if you go also for Mr. Polk, on the origin 
and mode of prosecuting the war, you will still take some 
democrats, but you will lose more whigs, so that, in the sum 
of the operation, you will be loser. This is, at least, my opin- 
ion ; and if you will look around, 1 doubt if you do not dis- 
cover such to be the fact among your own neighbors. Fur- 
ther than this : by justifying Mr. Polk's mode of prosecuting 
the war, you put yourself in opposition to General Taylor 
himself, for we all know he has declared for, and, in fact, 
originated, the defensive line policy." 

In this letter, Mr. Lincoln talks like a politician (and he 
was one of the most acute that the country ever produced,) 
to a politician. It looks as if he were handling grave ques- 
tions of state with reference only to party ends ; but the letter 
does not represent him wholly. In a subsequent note to the 
same friend, in answer to the question whether " it would not 
be just as easy to elect General Taylor without opposing the 
war, as by opposing it," he replies: "the locofocos here will 
not let the whigs be silent, * * * so that they are compelled 
to speak, and their only option is whether they will, when they 
speak, tell the truth, or tell a foul, villainous and bloody 
falsehood." In this declaration, the politician sinks, and the 
man rises, and seems to be what he really is — honest and 
conscientious 

On the fourteenth day of August, the first session of the 
Thirtieth Congress came to a close, and the members went 
home to continue and complete the campaign which they had 
inaugurated at Washington. The session had been one of 
strong excitements, particular interest attaching to every im- 
portant debate in consequence of its bearing upon the question 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 119 

of the presidency. Mr. Lincoln had discharged his duties 
well — ably and conscientiously, at least. He found to his re- 
gret that he had not entirely pleased his constituents in his 
course on the questions connected with the war. It is probable 
that he could have secured a renomination had he himself been 
willing to risk the result. That a man with his desire for 
public life would willingly retire from ( longress at the end of 
a single term of service is not probable; and while it has been 
said that he peremptorily refused to be again considered a 
candidate, on account of his desire to engage more exclusively 
in the duties of his profession, it is not credible that this was 
his only motive.* Indeed, there is evidence that he sought 
another office, in consequence of the fact that his professional 
business had suffered so severely by his absence that he would 
have been glad to quit it altogether. lie was in no hurry to 
return to it, certainly, for at the close of the session, he visited 
New England, and made a number of very effective campaign 
speeches, and then went home, and devoted his time to the 
canvass for the election of General Taylor until he had the 
satisfaction of witnessing the triumph of his candidate, and 
the national success of the party to whose fortunes he had 
been so long and so warmly devoted. 

In his own district, Mr. Lincoln helped to give General 
Taylor a majority nearly equal to that by which he had been 
elected to Congress. The general result of the election brought 
to him great satisfaction. It justified his own judgment touch- 
ing the candidate's availability, and promised a return to the 
policy which he believed essential to the welfare of the country. 
But little time was left between the close of the canvass and 
the commencement of the second session, so that Mr. Lincoln 
had no more than sufficient space for the transaction of his 
personal business at home, before he was obliged to take his 
departure again for Washington. 

The second session of this Congress was comparatively a 

* Mr. Scripps, in his campaign biography, says that his refusal to be 
again a candidate, Avas in accordance with an understanding with the 
leading whigs of his district before his election. 



120 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

quiet one. Several months had elapsed since the treaty of 

Guadalupe Hidalgo had ratified peace between the United 

States and Mexico, the presidential campaign had transpired, 

and the national political caldron had ceased to boil. Mr. 

Lincoln carried into this session the anti-slavery record of an 

anti-slavery whig. He had voted forty-two times for the 

Wilmot Proviso, had stood firmly by John Quincy Adams 

and Joshua R. Giddings on the right of petition, and, was 

recognized as a man who would do as much in opposition to 

slavery as his constitutional obligations would permit him to 

do. Early in the session, Mr. Gott of New York introduced 

a resolution instructing the Committee on the District of Co- 
ts 

lumbia to report a bill prohibiting the slave trade in the Dis- 
trict. The language of the preamble upon which the l-esolu- 
tion was based was very strong, and doubtless seemed to Mr. 
Lincoln unnecessarily offensive ; and we find him voting with 
the pro-slavery men of the House to lay it on the table, and 
subsequently voting against its adoption. He had probably 
been maturin" > a measure which he intended should cover the 
same ground, in another way, and on the sixteenth of January 
he introduced a substitute for this resolution, which had been 
carried along under a motion to reconsider. It provided that 
no person not within the District, and no person thereafter 
born within the District, should be held to slavery within the 
District, or held to slavery without its limits, while it provided 
that those holding slaves in the slave states might bring them 
in and take them out again, when visiting the District on 
public business. It also provided for the emancipation of all 
the slaves legally held within the District, at the will of their 
masters, who could claim their full value at the hands of the 
government, and that the act itself should be subject to the 
approval of the voters of the District. The bill had also a 
provision, " that the municipal authorities of Washington and 
Georgetown, within their respective jurisdictional limits," 
should be " empowered and required to provide active and 
efficient means to arrest and deliver up to their owners all 
fugitive slaves escaping into said District." 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 121 

If any evidence were needed to establish the fact that Mr. 
Lincoln regarded slaves as property under the Constitution, 
this bill would seem to furnish ;dl that is desired. If he did 
not SO regard them, this bill convicts him of* friendliness rather 
than enmity to slavery. If he did not so regard them, his 
whole record relating to slavery was a record of duplicity. 
Mr. Lincoln's character as an anti-slavery man can have no 
consistency on any basis except that of his firm belief that 
slaves were recognized as property under the' Constitution of 
the United States; and those who impute to him the opposite 
opinion, or action based upon the opposite opinion, inflict a 
wrong upon his memory.* He recognized slaves as property 
not only in Congress, but on the stump and even in his busi- 
ness. He was once employed by General Mattcson of Bour- 
bon County, Kentucky, who had brought five or six negroes 
into Coles County, Illinois, and worked them on a farm for 
two or three years, to get them out of the hands of the civil 
authorities, which had interfered to keep him from taking them 
back to Kentucky. Judge Wilson and Judge Treat, both of 
the Supreme Court, sat on the case, and decided against the 
claim of the slaveholder, as presented by Mr. Lincoln. It is 
remembered that he made a very poor plea, and exercised a 
good deal of research in presenting the authorities for and 
against, and that all his sympathies were on the side of the 
slaves, but such a man as Mr. Lincoln would never have con- 
sented to act on this case if he had not believed that slaves 
were recognized as property by the Constitution. It is true 
that in a speech delivered afterwards, during the famous Doug- 
las campaign, he denied the statement made by the Supreme 
Court in the Dred Scott decision, that " the right of property 
in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitu- 
tion;" but 1 there was to him, and there is in fact, a great dif- 
ference between a distinct and express affirmation, and a real 
though it may be qnly a tacit recognition of property in a 
slave. Slavery was to him legally right and morally wrong. 

*" His vote is recorded against the pretence that slaves were property 
under the Constitution." — Charles Sumner's Eulogy at Boston, June 1, 1865. 



12J LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

He was equally loyal to the Constitution and loving to his 
kind; and when the time came which gave him the privilege 
of striking off the fetters of the slave, in order to preserve 
his country and its Constitution, he did it, and counted the act 
the crowning one of his life. 

Mr. Lincoln did not bring his hill forward without consul- 
tation. Mr. Seaton, of the National Intelligencer, is under- 
stood to have been most in his confidence ; and Mr. Lincoln 
said, on presenting his bill to the House, that he was author- 
ized to say that, of about fifteen of the leading citizens of the 
District to whom the proposition had been submitted, there 
was not one who did not give it his approval. A substitute 
for the bill was moved, and finally the whole subject was 
given up, and left to take its place among the unfinished 
business of the Congress. The reason for this is reported to 
have been Mr. Seaton's withdrawal from .the support of the 
plan ; and Mr. Seaton's withdrawal from the support of the 
plan is said to have been owing to the visits and expostulations 
of members of Congress from the slave states. Mr. Lincoln 
could hope to do nothing without the approval of the voters 
of the District, and to secure this approval he must secure 
the support of the National Intelligencer. That taken from 
his scheme, he took no further interest in pursuing it. 

Mr. Lincoln had other occasions, during the session, to re- 
cord his votes against slavery, in his own moderate way — al- 
ways moved by his humanity and his love of that which was 
morally right, and withheld and controlled by his obligations 
to the Constitution and the law, as he apprehended those ob- 
ligations. 

The fourth of March brought his Congressional career to a 
close. While he had maintained a most respectable position 
in the House, there is no reason to believe that he made any 
great impression upon legislation, or upon the mind of the 
country. His highest honors were to be won in another field, 
for which his two years in the House were in part a prepara- 
tion. After his return to Springfield, he found his practice 
dissipated. He saw that he should be obliged to begin again. 



LIFE 01' ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 123 

Business, for the time, had taken new channels, as it never 
fails to do in like eases. The charms of the old life in Wash- 
ington came back to him, and he was ready to take an office. 
lie had a fancy that he would like to be Commissioner of the 
General Land Office, and Mr. Defrees, now the superintendent 
of public printing at Washington, and then the editor of the 
Indiana State Journal, wrote an extended article,' urging his 
appointment, and published it in that newspaper. The effort 
miscarried, very much to Mr. Lincoln's and the country's ad- 
vantage ; and Mr. Butterfield of Illinois secured the coveted 
place. The unsuccessful application for this appointment was 
subsequently a theme of much merriment between Mr. Lin- 
coln and his friends. 



CHAPTER X. 

On returning to his home, Mr. Lincoln entered upon the 
duties of his profession, and devoted himself to them through 
a series of years, less disturbed by diversions into state and 
national politics than he had been during any previous period 
of his business life. It was to him a time of rest, of reading, 
of social happiness and of professional prosperity. He was 
already a father, and took an almost unbounded pleasure in 
his children.* Their sweet young natures were to him a 
perpetual source of delight. He was never impatient with 
their petulance and restlessness, loved always to be with them, 
and took them into his heart with a fondness which was un- 
speakable. It was a fondness so tender and profound as to 
blind him to their imperfections, and to expel from him every 
particle of sternness in his management of them. It must be 
said that he had very little of Avhat is called parental govern- 
ment. The most that he could say to any little rebel in his 
household was, "you break my heart, when you act like this ; " 
and the loving eyes and affectionate voice and sincere expres- 

*Mr. Lincoln had fonr children, all sons, viz: Robert Todd, Edwards, 
who died in infancy, William, who died in Washington during Mr. Lin- 
coln's presidency, and Thomas. The oldest and youngest survive. The 
latter became the pet of the White House, and is known to the country 
as " Tad." This nickname was conferred by his father who, while 
Thomas was an infant in arms, and without a name, playfully called 
him " Tadpole." This was abbreviated to the pet name which he will 
probably never outlive. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 125 

sion of pain were usually enough to bring the culprit to hia 
senses and his obedience. A young man bred in Springfield 
speaks of a vision that has clung to his memory very vividly, 
of Mr. Lincoln as he appeared in those days. I lis way to 
school led by the lawyer's door. On almost any fair summer 
morning, he could find Mr. Lincoln on the sidewalk, in front 
of his house, drawing a child backward and forward, in a 
child's gig. Without hat or coat, and wearing a pair of rough 
shoes, his hands behind him holding to the tongue of the gig, 
and his tall form bent forward to aecommodate himself to the 
service, he paced up and down the walk, forgetful of every- 
thing around him, and intent only on some subject that ab- 
sorbed his mind. The young man says he remembers won- 
dering, in his boyish way, how so rough and plain a man 
should happen to live in so respectable a house. 

The habit of mental absorption — absent mintledness, as it is 
called — was common with him always, but particularly during 
the formative periods of his life. The New Salem people, it 
will be remembered, thought him crazy, because he passed his 
best friends in the street without seeing them. At the table, 
in his own family, he often sat down without knowing or real- 
izing where he was, and ate his food mechanically. When 
he "came to himself," it was a trick with him to break the 
silence by the quotation of some verse of poetry from a favor- 
ite author. It relieved the awkwardness of " the situation," 
served as a blind to the thoughts which had possessed him, 
and started conversation in a channel that led as far as possi- 
ble from the subject that he had set aside. 

Mr. Lincoln's lack of early advantages and the limited 
character of his education were constant subjects of regret 
with him. His intercourse with members of Congress and 
with the cultivated society of Washington had, without doubt, 
made him feel his deficiencies more keenly than ever before. 
There is no doubt that his successes were a constant surprise 
to him. lie felt that his acquisitions were very humble, and 
that the estimate which the public placed upon him was, in 
some respects, a blind and mistaken one. It was at this period 



12G LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

that he undertook to improve himself somewhat by attention 
to mathematics, and actually mastered the first six books of 
Euclid. In speaking of" this new acquisition to a friend, he 
said that, in debates, he had frequently heard the word "dem- 
onstration" used, and he determined to ascertain for himself 
what it meant. After his mastery of geometry, he had no 
further uncertainty on the subject. 

Allusion has been made to Mr. Lincoln's mechanical genius. 
That he had enough of this to make him a good mechanics, 
there is no doubt. "With such rude tools as were at his com- 
mand he had made cabins and flat-boats ; and after his mind 
had become absorbed in public and professional affairs he often 
recurred to his mechanical dreams for amusement. One of his 
dreams took form, and he endeavored to make a practical 
matter of it. He had had experience in the early navigation 
of the "Western rivers. One of the most serious hinderances 
to this navigation was low "water, and the lodgment of the 
various craft on the shifting shoals and bars with which these 
rivers abound. lie undertook to contrive an apparatus which, 
folded to the hull of a boat like a bellows, might be inflated on 
occasion, and, by its levity, lift it over any obstruction upon 
which it might rest. On this contrivance, illustrated by a 
model whittled out by himself, and now preserved in the patent 
office at "Washington, he secured letters patent ; but it is certain 
that the navigation of the "Western rivers was not revolution- 
ized by it. 

Mr. Lincoln never made his profession lucrative to himself. 
It was very difficult for him to charge a heavy fee to anybody, 
and still more difficult for him to charge his friends anything 
at all for professional services. To a poor client, he was quite 
as apt to give money as to take it from him. He never en- 
couraged the spirit of litigation. Henry McIIcnry, one of his 
old clients, says that he went to Mr. Lincoln with a case to pros- 
ecute, and that Mr. Lincoln refused to have anything to do 
with it, because he was not strictly in the right. " You can 
give the other party a great deal of trouble," said the lawyer, 
" and perhaps beat him, but you had better let the suit alone." 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 127 

Mr. Lincoln had on hand a ease for this same gentleman for 
three years, and took it through three courts to the Supreme 
Court, and charged him for his services only seventy-five dol- 
lars His wants were nor large. He had no expensive vices, 
took no delight in fine clothing, and had no strong desire to 
accumulate money. Indeed, alter all his years of practice, 
wind: closed only with his election to the presidency, he had 
accumulated, as the sum total of all his gold and goods, only 
the estimated value of sixteen thousand dollars. 

Some incidents illustrating his practice, and the motives 
which controlled him in it, may with propriety be stated here, 
although they are not all of them associated with this period 
of his life. An old woman of seventy-five years, the widow 
of a revolutionary pensioner, came tottering into his office one 
day, and, taking a seat, told him that a certain pension agent 
had charged her the exorbitant fee of two hundred dollars for 
collecting her claim. Mr. Lincoki was satisfied by her repre- 
sentations that she had been swindled, and finding that she 
was not a resident of the town, and that she was poor, gave 
her money, and set about the work of procuring restitution. 
He immediately entered suit against the agent to recover a 
portion of his ill-gotten money. The suit was entirely suc- 
cessful, and Mr. Lincoln's address to the jury before which 
the case was tried is remembered to have been peculiarly 
touching in its allusions to the poverty of the widow, and the 
patriotism of the husband ■ she had sacrificed to secure the 
nation's independence. He had the gratification of paying 
back to her a hundred dollars, and sending her home rejoicing. 

One afternoon an old negro woman came into the office 
of Lincoln & Herndon,* and told the story of her trouble, 
to which both lawyers listened. It appeared that she and 
her offspring were born slaves in Kentucky, and that her 
owner, one Hinkle, had brought the whole family into Illinois, 
and given them their freedom. Her son had gone down the 
Mississippi as a waiter or deck hand, on a steamboat. Arriv- 

* William II. Herndon, who became Mr. Lincoln's partner after ho 
dissolved his association with Judge Logan. 



128 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ino- at New Orleans, he had imprudently gone ashore, and 
had been snatched up by the police, in accordance with the 
law then in force concerning free negroes from other states, 
and thrown into confinement. Subsequently, he was brought 
out and tried. Of course he was fined, and, the boat having 
left, he was sold, or was in immediate danger of being sold, 
to pay his fine and the expenses. Mr. Lincoln was very 
much moved, and requested Mr. Herndon to go over to the 
State House, and inquire of Governor Bissell if there was 
not something that he could do to obtain possession of the 
negro. Mr. Herndon made the inquiry, and returned with 
the report that the Governor regretted to say that he had no 
legal or constitutional right to do anything in the premises. 
Mr. Lincoln rose to his feet in great excitement, and exclaimed, 
" By the Almighty, I '11 have that negro back soon, or I "11 
have a twenty years' agitation in Illinois, until the Governor 
does have a legal and constitutional right to do something in 
the premises." He was saved from the latter alternative — at 
least in the direct form which he proposed. The lawyers sent 
money to a New Orleans correspondent — money of their 
OAvn — who procured the negro, and returned him to his mother. 
Mr. Lincoln's early athletic struggle with Jack Armstrong, 
the representative man of the " Clary's Grove Boys," will be 
remembered. From the moment of this struggle, which Jack 
agreed to call " a drawn battle," in consequence of his own 
foul play, they became strong friends. Jack would fight for 
Mr. Lincoln at any time, and would never hear him spoken 
against. Indeed, there were times when young Lincoln made 
Jack's cabin his home, and here Mrs. Armstrong, a most 
womanly person, learned to respect the rising man. There 
was no service to which she did not make her guest abund- 
antly welcome, and he never ceased to feel the tenderest grat- 
itude for her kindness. At length, her husband died, and she 
became dependent upon her sons. The oldest of these, while 
in attendance upon a camp-meeting, found himself involved in 
a melee, which resulted in the death of a young man ; and 
young Armstrong was charged by one of his associates with 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 129 

striking the fatal blow. lie was arrested, examined, and im- 
prisoned to await his trial. The public mind was in a blaze 
of excitement, and interested parties fed the flame. Mr. Lin- 
coln knew nothing of the merits of this case, that is certain. 
He only knew that his old friend Mrs. Armstrong was in son' 
trouble; and he sat down at once, and volunteered by letter 
to defend her son. His first act was to procure the postpone- 
ment and a change of the place of the trial. There was too 
much fever in the minds of the immediate public to permit of 
fair treatment. When the trial came on, the case looked very 
hopeless to all but Mr. Lincoln, who had assured himself that 
the young man was not guilty. The evidence on behalf of 
the state being all in, and looking like a solid and consistent 
mass of testimony against the prisoner, Mr. Lincoln undertook 
the task of analyzing and destroying it, which he did in a 
manner that surprised every one. The principal witness test- 
ified that " by the aid of the brightly shining moon, he saw 
the prisoner inflict the death blow with a slung shot." Mr. 
Lincoln proved by the almanac that there was no moon shining 
at the time. The mass of testimony against the prisoner 
melted away, until "not guilty" was the verdict of every man 
present in the crowded court-room. There is, of course, no 
record of the plea made on this occasion, but it is remembered 
as one in which Mr. Lincoln made an appeal to the sympathies 
of the jury which quite surpassed his usual efforts of the kind, 
and melted all to tears. The jury were out but half an hour, 
when they returned with their verdict of "not guilty." The 
widow fainted in the arms of her son, who divided his atten- 
tion between his services to her and his thanks to his deliverer. 
And thus the kind woman who eared for the poor young man, 
and showed herself a mother to him in his need, received the 
life of a son, saved from a cruel conspiracy, as her reward, 
from the hand of her grateful beneficiary. 

The lawyers of Springfield, particularly those who had 

political aspirations, were afraid to undertake the defense of 

any one who had been engaged in helping off fugitive slaves. 

It was a very unpopular business in those days and in that lo- 

9 



130 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

cality; and few felt that they could afford to engage in it. 
One who needed such aid went to Edward D. Baker, and 
was refused defense distinctly and frankly, on the ground 
that, as a political man, he could not afford it. The man ap- 
plied to an ardent anti-slavery friend for advice. He spoke 
of Mr. Lincoln, and said, " He 's not afraid of an unpopular 
case. When I go for a lawyer to defend an arrested fugitive 
slave, other lawyers will refuse me, but if Mr. Lincoln is at 
home, he will always take my case." 

A sheep-grower sold a number of sheep at a stipulated av- 
erage price. When he delivered the animals, he delivered 
many lambs, or sheep too young to come fairly within the terms 
of the contract. He was sued for damages by the injured 
party, and Mr. Lincoln was his attorney. At the trial, the 
facts as to the character of the sheep delivered were proved, 
and several witnesses testified as to the usage by which all 
under a certain age were regarded as lambs, and of inferior 
value. Mr. Lincoln, on comprehending the facts, at once 
changed his line of effort, and confined himself to ascertaining 
the real number of inferior sheep delivered. On addressing 
the jury, he said that from the facts proved they must give 
a verdict against his client, and he only asked their scrutiny 
as to the actual damage suffered. 

In another case, Mr. Lincoln was conducting a suit against 
a railroad company. Judgment having been given in his fa- 
vor, and the court being about to allow the amount claimed 
by him, deducting a proved and allowed offset, he rose and 
stated that his opponents had not proved all that was justly 
due them in offset ; and proceeded to state and allow a further 
sum against his client, which the court allowed in its judg- 
ment. His desire for the establishment of exact justice always 
overcame his own selfish love of victory, as well as his partial- 
ity for his clients' feelings and interests. 

These incidents sufficiently illustrate the humane feelings and 
thorough honesty which Mr. Lincoln carried into the practice 
of his profession, and, as allusion has already been made to 
the high estimate placed by the people upon his ability as a 



LIFE OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN. 131 

lawyer, it will be proper to record here the high opinion of his 
professional merits entertained by the most eminent represen- 
tatives of the bar of Illinois. His death in 1865 was, in ac- 
cordance with usage, made the subject of notice by the various 
courts of the state. The Supreme Court in session at Ottawa, 
received a series of resolutions from the bar, which were 
placed upon its records. Ex-Judge Caton, in presenting them, 
said, " He (Mr. Lincoln) understood the relations of things, 
and hence his deductions were rarely wrong, from any given 
state of facts. So he applied the principles of law to the 
transactions of men with great clearness and precision. He 
was a close reasoner. He reasoned by analogy, and enforced 
his views by apt illustration. His mode of speaking was gen- 
erally of a plain and unimpassioned character, and yet, he was 
the author of some of the most beautiful and eloquent passages 
in our lansniasce, which, if collected, would form a valuable 
contribution to American literature. The most punctilious 
honor ever marked his professional and private life." 

Judge Breese, in responding to the resolutions and the re- 
marks of Judge Caton, was still more outspoken in his high 
opinion of Mr. Lincoln, as a lawyer. " For my single self," 
he said, " I have for a quarter of a century regarded Mr. 
Lincoln as the finest lawyer I ever knew, and of a professional 
bearing so high-toned and honorable as justly, and without 
derogating from the claims of others, entitling him to be pre- 
sented to the profession as a model well worthy of the closest 
imitation.'-' Judge Thomas Drummond of Chicago, repre- 
senting the bar of that city, said, " I have no hesitation in 
saying that he was one of the ablest lawyers I have ever 
known." In addition, he said, " no intelligent man who ever 
watched Mr. Lincoln through a hard-contested case at the 
bar, questioned his great ability." Judge Drummond's pic- 
ture of Mr. Lincoln at the bar, and his mode of speech and 
action is so graphic and so just that it deserves to be quoted : 

" With a voice by no means pleasant, and, indeed, when excited, in its 
shrill tones, sometimes almost disagreeable ; without any of the personal 
graces of the orator; without much in the outward man indicating supe- 



132 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

riority of intellect ; without great quickness of perception — still, his mind 
was so vigorous, his comprehension so exact and clear, and his judgment 
so sure, that he easily mastered the intricacies of his profession, and 
became one of the ablest reasoners and most impressive speakers at our 
bar. With a probity of character known of all, with an intuitive insight 
into the human heart, with a clearness of statement which was itself an 
argument, with uncommon power and felicity of illustration, — often, it 
is true, of a plain and homely kind, — and with that sincerity and earn- 
estness of manner which carried conviction, he was, perhaps, one of the 
most successfid jury lawyers we have ever had in the state. He always 
tried a case fairly and houcstly. He never intentionally misrepresented 
the evidence of a witness or the argument of an opponent. He met 
both squarely, and, if he could not explain the one or answer the other, 
substantially admitted it. He never misstated the law according to his 
own intelligent view of it." 

These tributes to the professional excellence of Mr. Lincoln, 
by those best qualified to judge it, is all the more significant 
from the fact that it was rendered by those who, throughout 
his whole career, were opposed to him politically — by demo- 
crats and conservatives. Judge David Davis, of Bloomington, 
Illinois, a strong personal friend of Mr. Lincoln, in responding 
to resolutions presented by the bar of Indianapolis, said that 
" in all the elements that constitute the great lawyer, he 
(Mr. Lincoln) had few equals. He was great both at Nisi 
Prius and before an appellate tribunal. He seized the strong 
points of a case, and presented them with clearness and great 
compactness. A vein of humor never deserted him, and he 
was always able to chain the attention of court and jury when 
the cause was the most uninteresting, by the appropriateness 
of his anecdotes." 

It was during this period of Mr. Lincoln's life that he was 
called upon to pronounce a eulogy upon Henry Clay. The 
death of this eminent statesman occurred in 1852, and the 
citizens of Springfield thought of no man so competent to do 
his memory justice as he who had through so many years 
been devoted to his interests and his political .principles. The 
eulogy was pronounced in the State House, and was listened 
to by a large audience. The discourse, as it was printed in 
the city newspapers of the day, was by no means a remarka- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 133 

blc one. It is remembered as a very dull one at its delivery, 
and was so regarded by Mr. Lincoln himself, who complained 
that lie lacked the imagination necessary lor a performance of 
that character. It is possible that the effect upon his mind 
of the old visit to Ashland was not entirely obliterated; for 
Mr. Lincoln was quite accustomed to find expression for any 
admiration that was really within him. The closing words of 
the eulogy, though hortatory in form, were prophetic in fact, 
and, in the light of subsequent events, have a touching in- 
terest. " Such a man," said he, " the times have demanded, 
and such in the Providence of God was given us. But he is 
gone. Let us strive to deserve, as far as mortals may, the 
continued care of Divine Providence, trusting that in future 
national emergencies he will not fail to provide us the instru- 
ments of safety and security." That Divine Providence 
which he so confidently trusted then, trusted him as the instru- 
ment for executing its own designs, in the greatest of national 
emergencies. 

It is not to be supposed that during these years of quiet pro- 
fessional life Mr. Lincoln was entirely indifferent to the course 
of political affairs. Great national events were in progress, 
which must have impressed him profoundly. The slave states, 
conscious that power was departing from them, were desperate 
in their efforts and fruitful in their expedients to retain it. 
On the 9th of September, 1850, the free state of California 
was admitted to the Union. There was a double bitterness 
in this measure to those interested in the perpetuation of the 
influence of slavery in national affairs. The state was formed 
from territory on which the South had hoped to extend the 
area of their institution — which had been Avon from Mexico 
for that special purpose ; and there was no slave state in read- 
iness to be admitted with it, in accordance with southern policy 
and congressional usage. As an offset to this accession to the 
power of the free states, a series of concessions were exacted 
of them which excited great discontent among the people. 
The compromise measures of 1850, as they were called, did 
not satisfy either section. The South did not see in them the 



134 LIFE OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN. 

security they desired, and the North felt itself wronged and 
humiliated by them. Yet there was among the people of both 
sections a strong desire for peace. They had become weary 
with agitation, and readily fell in with the action of the two 
national conventions, which, in 1852, accepted these measures 
as a final settlement of the points of difference between the 
two sections of the country. It is easy, in looking back, to 
see how wretched a basis these measures furnished for peace 
between freedom and slavery ; but the best men and the most; 
patriotic men of the time found nothing better. 

How far Mr. Lincoln shared in the desire that these meas- 
ures should be the final settlement of the slavery question in 
the country, or believed it possible that they could be, is not 
known. Although he consented to stand on the Scott elect- 
oral ticket in 1852, he does not seem to have gone into the 
canvass with his characteristic earnestness. His party had 
committed him, in advance, to silence on the subject of slavery ; 
ancbit was quite possible that he was willing to see how much 
could be done towards stifling what seemed to be a fruitless 
agitation. He made but few speeches, and these few made 
little impression. The defeat of General Scott and the election 
of General Pierce was in accordance with the popular expect- 
ation. Mr. Lincoln had not been diverted from his profes- 
sional pursuits by the campaign, and for two years thereafter 
he found nothing in politics to call him from his business. 

In 1854, a new political era opened. Events occurred of 
immeasurable influence upon the country; and an agitation 
of the slavery question was begun which was destined not to 
cease until slavery itself should be destroyed. Disregarding 
the pledges of peace and harmony, the party in the interest 
of slavery effected in Congress the abrogation of the Missouri 
Compromise of 1820 — a compromise which was intended to 
shut slavery forever out of the north r west ; and a bill organ- 
izing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska was enacted, 
which left them free to choose whether they would have 
slavery as an institution or not. The intention, without 
doubt, was to force slavery upon those territories — to make 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 135 

it impossible for them ever to become free states — as the sub- 
sequent exhibitions of "border ruffianism" in Kansas suffi- 
ciently testified. This great political iniquity aroused Mr. 
Lincoln as he had never before been aroused. It was at this 
time that he fully comprehended the fact that there was to be 
no peace on the slavery question until either freedom or slavery 
should triumph. He knew slavery to be wrong. He had al- 
ways known and felt it to be so. He knew that lie regarded 
the institution as the fathers of the republic had regarded it; 
but a new doctrine had been put forward. Slavery was right. 
Slavery was entitled to equal consideration with freedom. 
Slavery claimed the privilege of going wherever, into the 
national domain, it might choose to go. Slavery claimed .na- 
tional protection everywhere. Instead of remaining content- 
edly within the territory it occupied under the protection of 
the Constitution, it sought to extend itself indefinitely — to 
nationalize itself. 

Judge Douglas of Illinois was the responsible author of 
what was called the Kansas-Nebraska bill — a bill which he 
based upon what he was pleased to denominate " popular sover- 
eignty " — the right of the people of a territory to choose their 
own institutions ; and between Judge Douglas and Mr. Lin- 
coln was destined to be fought "the battle of the giants" on 
the questions that grew out of this great political crime. 
Mr. Lincoln's indignation was an index to the popular feeling 
all over the North. The men who, in good faith, had acqui- 
esced in the compromise measures, though with great reluctance 
and only for the sake of peace — who had compelled themselves 
to silence by biting their lips — who had been forced into si- • 
lence by their love. of the Union whose existence the slave 
power had threatened — saw that they had been over-reached 
and foully wronged. 

Mr. Douglas, on his return to his constituents, was met by 
a storm of indignation, so that when he first undertook to 
speak in vindication of himself he was not permitted to do so. 
He found that he had committed a great political blunder, 
even if he failed to comprehend the fact that he had been 



136 LIFE OF ABRAHAM .LINCOLN. 

guilty of a criminal breach of faith. The first exhibition? of 
popular rage naturally passed away, so that the city which 
refused to hear him speak, now honors his dust as that of a 
great and powerful and famous man ; but the city and the state 
have discarded his political principles; and the party which 
once honored him with so much confidence, remembers with 
regret — possibly with bitterness — that he was mainly responsi- 
ble for its overthrow. Mr. Douglas, without doubt, foresaw 
what was coming, as the result of his political misdeeds, but 
he tried to avert the popular judgment. He spoke in various 
places in the state, but with little effect. Congress had ad- 
journed early in August. His attempt to speak in Chicago 
wa^made on the first of September, and early in October, on 
the occasion of the State Fair, he found himself at Springfield. 
The Fair had brought together a large number of represen- 
tative men, from all parts of the state, many of whom had 
come for the purposes of political reunion and consultation. 
There was a great deal of political speaking, but the chief in- 
terest of the occasion centered in a discussion between Mr. 
Lincoln and Mr. Douglas. It had been many years since 
these two men had found themselves pitted against each other 
in debate, and during nearly all these years, Mr. Douglas had 
been in public life. He was a man known to the whole nation. 
He was the recognized leader of his party in Illinois, notwith- 
standing the fact that his course had driven many from his 
support. His experience in deb-ate, his easy audacity and 
assurance, his great ability, his strong will, his unconquerable 
ambition, and his untiring industry, made him a most formid- 
able antagonist. To say that his unlimited self-confidence, 
which not unfrequently made him arrogant and overbearing — 
at least, in appearance — assisted him in the work which he had 
before him, would be to insult the independent common sense 
of the people he addressed. Mr. Douglas entered into an 
exposition and defense of his principles and policy with the 
bearing of a man who had already conquered. His long and 
uninterrupted success had made him restive under inquisition, 
impatient of dispute, and defiant of opposition. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 137 

On the day following the speech of Mr. Douglas, Mr. Lin- 
coln, who had listened to him, replied, and Mr. Douglas was 
amonff his auditors. The speech delivered on this occasion 
was one of the most powerful and eloquenl efforts of his life. 
Mr. Lincoln began by saying that he wished to present noth- 
ing to the people but the truth, to which they were certainly 
entitled, and that, if Judge Douglas should detect him in 
saying anything untrue, he (Judge Douglas) would correct 
him. Mr. Douglas took license from this remark to interrupt 
him constantly, with the most unimportant questions, and in 
such a way as to show Mr. Lincoln that his only motiye was 
to break him down. Finally, the speaker lost his patience, 
and said, " Gentlemen, I cannot afford to spend my time in 
quibbles. I take the responsibility of asserting the truth 
myself, relieving Judge Douglas from the necessity of his 
impertinent corrections." From this point, he was permitted 
to proceed uninterruptedly, until a speech occupying three 
hours and ten minutes was concluded. No report of this 
speech was made, and no judgment can be formed of it, ex- 
cept such as can be made up from the cotemporary newspaper 
accounts, the recollections of those who heard it, and its effect 
upon the politics of the state. The enthusiasm of the party 
press was unbounded, and was manifestly genuine. The 
Kansas-Nebraska bill Avas the subject of debate ; and his ex- 
posure of its fallacies and iniquities was declared to be over- 
whelming. His whole heart was in his words. The Spring- 
field Journal, in describing the speech and the occasion, says : 
" He quivered with feeling and emotion. The whole house 
was as still as death. He attacked the bill with unusual 
warmth and energy, and all felt that a man of strength was its 
enemy, and that he intended to blast it if he could by strong 
and manly efforts. He was most successful ; and the house 
approved the glorious triumph of truth by loud and long- 
continued huzzas. Women waved their white handkerchiefs 
in token of woman's silent but heartfelt consent. * * * Mr. 
Lincoln exhibited Douglas in all the attitudes he could be 
placed in in a friendly debate. He exhibited the bill in all its 



138 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

aspects, to show its humbuggery and falsehoods, and when 
thus torn to rags, cut into slips, held up to the gaze of the 
vast crowd, a kind of scorn was visible upon the face oi the 
crowd and upon the lips of the most eloquent speaker." The 
editor, in concluding his account, says: "At the conclusion of 
the speech, every man felt that it was unanswerable — that no 
human power could overthrow it, or trample it under foot. 
The long and repeated applause evinced the feelings of the 
crowd, and gave token of universal assent to Lincoln's whole 
argument ; and every mind present did homage to the man 
who took captive the heart, and broke like a sun over the 
understanding.'* 

The account of this speech in the Chicago Press and Trib- 
une was not less enthusiastic in its praise, than the journal 
just quoted. After stating that, within the limits of a news- 
paper article, it would be impossible to give an idea of the 
strength of Mr. Lincoln's argument, and that it was by far 
the ablest effort of the campaign, he quotes the following pas- 
sage directly from the speech, as remarkable in its power 
upon the audience: "My distinguished friend says it is an 
insult to the emigrants to Kansas and Nebraska to suppose 
they are not able to govern themselves. We must not slur 
over an argument of this kind because it happens to tickle the 
ear. It must be met and answered. I admit that the emi- 
grant to Kansas and Nebraska is competent to govern himself, 
but (the speaker rising to his full night,) I deny his right to 
govern any other jwson without that person's consenty That 
touched the very marrow of the matter, and revealed the whole 
difference between him and Douglas. The crowd understood 
it. They saw through the iniquity of "popular sovereignty," 
and the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and the applause which fol- 
lowed showed their appreciation of the clearness and thorough- 
ness with which the speaker had exposed it. 

When Mr. Lincoln concluded his speech, Mr. Douglas 
hastily took the stand, and said that he had been abused, 
"though in a perfectly courteous manner." He spoke until 
the adjournment of the meeting for supper, but touched only 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. lo9 

slightly upon the great questions which Mr. Lincoln had 
handled with so much power. That he felt his effort to be a 
failure, & evident from subsequent events soon to be recounted. 
Before closing, he insisted on his right to resume his speech in 
the evening, but when evening came he did not resume, and 
did not choose to resume. The speech was never concluded. 

The next meeting between the two party champions took 
place at Peoria, though not by pre-arrangement. Mr. Lin- 
coln followed Mr. Douglas to Peoria, and challenged him 
there, as he had done at Springfield. At Peoria, Mr. Lin- 
coln's triumph was even more marked than at Springfield, 
for his antagonist had lost something of his assurance. He 
was a wounded and weakened man, indeed. He had become 
conscious that he was not invulnerable. He had been a wit- 
ness of Mr. Lincoln's power over the people ; and it is quite 
possible that his faith in his own position had been shaken. 
It was noticed at Peoria that his manner was much modified, 
and that he betrayed a lack of confidence in himself, not at 
all usual with him. Here, as at Springfield, Mr. Lincoln oc- 
cupied more than three hours in the delivery of his speech, 
and it came down upon Mr. Douglas so crushingly that the 
doughty debater did not even undertake to reply to it. 

It is to be remembered that Mr. Lincoln, in his political 
speeches, resorted to none of the tricks common among what 
are called stump speakers. He was thoroughly in earnest and 
always closely argumentative. If he told stories, it was not 
to amuse a crowd, but to illustrate a point. The real questions 
at issue engaged his entire attention, and he never undertook 
to raise a false issue or to dodge a real one. Indeed, he seemed 
incapable of the tricks so often resorted to for the discomfiture 
of an opponent. Fortunately, the Peoria speech was reported, 
and Ave have an opportunity of forming an intelligent judg- 
ment of its character and its power. One passage will suffice 
to illustrate both. Mr. Douglas had urged that the people of 
Illinois had no interest in the question of slavery in the terri- 
tories — that it concerned only the people of the territories. 
This was in accordance with his own feeling, when he declared 



140 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

that he did not care whether slavery was " voted up or voted 
down" in Kansas. Mr. Lincoln opposed this on the broad 
ground of humanity and the terms of the declaration of" in- 
dependence ; hut to bring the matter more directly home, and 
to show that the people of Illinois had a practical interest in 
the question of slavery in the territories, he said: 

" By the Constitution, each state has two senators — each has a num- 
ber of representatives in proportion to the number of its people, and 
each has a number of presidential electors, equal to the whole number 
of its representatives and senators together. But in ascertaining the 
number of the people for the purpose, five slaves are counted as being 
equal to three Avhites. The slaves do not vote ; they are only counted, 
and so used as to swell the influence of the Avhite people's votes. The 
practical effect of this is more aptly shown by a comparison of the states 
of South Carolina and Maine. South Carolina has six representatives 
and so has Maine ; South Carolina has eight presidential electors and so 
has Maine. This is precise equality so far; and of course they are 
equal* in senators, each having two. Thus, in the control of the gov- 
ernment, they are equals precisely. But how are they in the number 
of their white" people? Maine has 5S1,813, while South Carolina has 
274,567. Maine has twice as many as South Carolina, and 32,679 over. 
Thus each white man in South Carolina is more than the double of any 
man in Maine. This is all because South Carolina, besides her free 
people, has 387,984 slaves. The South Carolinian has precisely the 
same advantage over the white man in every other free state as well as 
in Maine. He is more than the double of any one of us. The same 
advantage, but not to the same extent, is held by all the citizens of the 
slave states over those of the free ; and it is an absolute truth, without 
an exception, that there is no voter in any slave state but who has more 
legal power in the government than any voter in any free state. There 
is no instance of exact equality ; and the disadvantage is against us the 
whole chapter through. This principle, in the aggregate, gives the slave 
states in the present Congress twenty additional representatives — being 
Beven more than the whole majority by which they passed the Nebraska 
bill. 

" Now all this is manifestly unfair ; yet I do not mention it to complain 
of it, in so far as it is already settled. It is in the Constitution, and I 
do not for that cause, or any other cause, propose to destroy, or alter, 
or disregard the Constitution. I stand to it fairly, fully and firmly. 
But when I am told that I must leave it altogether to other people to 
say whether new partners are to be bred up and brought into the firm, 
on the same degrading terms against me, I respectfully demur. I insist 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 141 

that whether T si '1 be a whole man or only the half of one in compari- 
son with others is a question in which I am somewhat concerned; and 
one which no other man can have a sacred right of deciding for me. If 
I am wrong in this — if it really be a sacred right of self-government in 
the man who shall go to Nebraska to decide whether he will be the equal 
of me or the double of me, then, after he shall have exercised that right, 
and thereby shall have reduced mc to a still smaller fraction of a man 
than I already am, I should like for some gentleman deeply skilled in 
the mystery of ' sacred rights,' to provide himself with a microscope, 
and peep aboutoand find out if he can what has become of my ' sacred 
rights.' They will surely be too small for detection by the naked eye. 

"Finally, 1 insist that if there is anything that it is the duty of tho 
whole people to never intrust to any hands but their own, that thing is 
the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions. 
And if they shall think, as I do, that the extension of shivery endangers 
them more than any or all other causes, how recreant to themselves if 
they submit the question, and with it, the fate of their country, to a 
mere handful of men bent only on temporary self-interest!" 

Mr. Douglas might well excuse himself from any attempt 
to answer this argument, or escape from its inevitable logic, 
for it was unanswerable. 

It was naturally the wisli of Mr. Lincoln to continue these 
discussions in other parts of the state. He felt that a revolu- 
tion of public opinion was in progress — that parties were 
breaking up, and that lie had his opponent at a disadvantage. 
But Mr. Douglas had had enough for this time. He wished 
to withdraw his forces before they were destroyed. He had 
had a heavy skirmish, and been worsted. He shrank from a 
continuance of the fight. The great and decisive battle was 
to come. 

At the close of the debate, the two combatants held a con- 
ference, the result uf which has been variously reported. 
One authority* states that Mr. Douglas sent for Mr. Lincoln, 
and told him that if he would speak no more during the cam- 
paign, -he (Douglas) would go home and remain silent during 
the same period, and that this arrangement was agreed upon 
and its terms fulfilled. That there was a conference on the 
subject sought by Mr. Douglas, there is no doubt; and there 

•William II. Herndon, Mr. Lincoln's partner. 



142 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

is no doubt that Mr. Lincoln promised not to challenge him 
again to debate during the canvass, but abundant evidence ex- 
ists that Mr. Lincoln did not leave the field at all, but spoke 
in various parts of the state. 

Owing very materially to Mr. Lincoln's efforts, a political 
revolution swept the state. The old stronghold of the demo- 
cratic party fell before the onslaughts made upon it, and, for 
the first time since the democratic party was organized, the 
legislature of Illinois was in the hands of the opposition. 
Politics were in a transitional, not to say chaotic state. The 
opposition was made up of whigs, Americans, and anti-Ne- 
braska democrats. Among the men elected was Mr. Lincoln 
himself, who had been put in nomination while absent, by 
his friends in the county. As has already been stated, he 
^resigned before taking his seat. His election was effected 
without consultation with him, and entirely against his wishes. 

The excitement attending the election of this legislature did 
not die out with the election, for the new body had the re- 
sponsibility of electing a United States senator. The old 
whigs elected had not relinquished the hope that, by some 
means, their party, which had in reality been broken up by 
the southern whigs in Congress going over to the democrats 

O © © © 

on the vote for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, would 
again be united, while the anti-Nebraska democrats declined 

© 7 

to go over to the whigs, supposing that, by clinging together, 
they could force the regular democracy of the state to come 
upon their ground. Here were two strongly antagonistic 
interests that were in some way to be harmonized, in order to 
beat the nominee of the great body of the democrats who still 
acknowledged the lead of Judge Douglas. The anti-Ne- 
braska democrats refused to go into a nominating caucus with 
the whigs, and three candidates were placed in the field. Mr. 
Lincoln was the nominee of the whigs, Lyman Trumbull 
of the anti-Nebraska democrats, and General James Shields 
of the democrats of the Douglas school. After a number of 
undecisive ballots in the legislature, the democrats having 
dropped their candidate and adopted Governor Joel A. Mat- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 143 

teson — a gentleman who had not committed himself to cither 
side of the great question — it became possible for the sup- 
porters of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Trumbull to elect one of 
those gentlemen, by a union of their forces. That Mr. Lin- 
coln was ambitious for the honors of this high office there is 
no question, but he had seen Governor Matteson come within 
three votes of an election, and perceived that there was actual 
danger of his triumph. At this juncture, he begged his 
friends to leave him, and go for Mr. Trumbull. They yielded 
to his urgent entreaties, though it is said that strong men 
among them actually wept when they consented to do so. 
The consequence was the election of Mr. Trumbull, to the 
great astonishment of the democrats, who did not believe it 
possible for the opposition to unite. Their triumph was due 
simply to the magnanimity of Mr. Lincoln and his devotion to 
principle. He had no reproaches for those anti-Nebraska 
democrats who had refused to £0 for him, although hi$ argu- 
ments had done more than those of any other man to give them 
their power, and he cared far more for the triumph of political 
truth and honor than for his own elevation. Mr. Lincoln 
never had reason to regret his self-sacrifice, for, upon the 
organization of the republican party, all the opposition par- 
ties found themselves together, and Mr. Lincoln became their 
foremost man. 



CHAPTER XI. 

The legitimate fruit of the Kansas-Nebraska bill had 
already begun to manifest itself in Kansas. Emigrants from 
the eastern states and from the north-west began to pour 
into the territory ; and those who had intended that it should 
become a slave state saw that their scheme was in danger. 
Mr. Douglas may not have cared whether slavery was " voted 
up or voted down" in Kansas, but slaveholders themselves 
showed a strong preference for voting it up, and not only for 
voting it up, but of backing up their votes by any requisite 
amount of violence. An organization in Platte Countv, Mis- 
souri, declared its readiness, when called upon by the citizens 
of Kansas, to assist in removing any and all emigrants who go 
there under the auspices of any of the " Emigrant Aid Soci- 
eties;" which societies, by the way, were supposed to be or- 
ganizations operating in the free state interest. This was in 
July, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska bill having been passed 
during the previous May. One B. F. String-fellow was the 
secretary of the organization, and a fortnight later he intro- 
duced, at a meeting of the society, resolutions declaring in 
favor of extending slavery into Kansas. Almon H. Reeder 
was appointed Governor, and arrived in the territory during 
the following October. At two elections, held within the 
.succeeding six months, the polls were entirely controlled by 
ruffians from the Missouri side of the border, and those dis- 
turbances were fully inaugurated which illustrated the des- 
perate desire of slavery to extend its territory and its power, 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 145 

the hypocrisy of Mr. Douglas and his friends in the declara- 
tion that the people of the territory should be perfectly free 
to choose and form their institutions, and the shameful sub- 
serviency of the government at Washington to the interests 
of the barbarous institution. 

This much of the history of Kansas, in order to a perfect 
appreciation of a private letter of Mr. Lincoln to his Kentucky 
friend, Mr. Speed: 

" Springfield, August 24, 1855. 

" Dear Speed : — You know what a poor correspondent I am. Ever 
since I received your very agreeable letter of the twenty-second of JNIay, 
I have been intending to write you in answer to it. You suggest that 
in political action now, you and I would differ. You know I dislike 
slavery, and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it. So far, there is no 
cause of difference. But you say that sooner than yield your legal right 
to the slave, especially at the bidding of those who are not themselves 
interested, you would see the Union dissolved. I am not aware that 
any one is bidding you yield that right — very certainly I am not. I 
leave that matter entirely to yourself. I also acknowledge your right:? 
and my obligations under the Constitution, in regard to your slaves. I 
confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down, and caught and 
carried back to their stripes and unrequited toil ; but I bite my lip, and 
keep quiet. In 1841, you and I had together a tedious, low-water trip 
on a steamboat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I 
well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio, there were on 
board ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight 
was a continual torment to me, and I see something like it every time 
I touch the Ohio, or any other slave border. It is not fair for you to 
assume that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually exer- 
cises, the power of making me miserable. You ought rather to appre- 
ciate how much the great body of the people of the North do crucifv 
their feelings, in order to maintain their loyalty to the Constitution and 
the Union. 

" I do oppose the extension of slavery, because my judgment and 
feelings so prompt me ; and I am under no obligations to the contrary. 
If, for this, you and I must differ, differ we must. You say if you were 
President you would send an army, and hang the leaders of the Missouri 
outrages upon the Kansas elections ; still, if Kansas fairly votes herself 
a slave state, she must be admitted, or the Union must be dissolved. 
But how if she votes herself a slave state unfairly — that is, by the very 
means for which you would hang men? Must she still be admitted, or 
10 



148 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the Union dissolved ? That will be the phase of the question when it 
first becomes a practical one.* 

" In your assumption that there may be a fair decision of the slavery 
question in Kansas, I plainly see you and I would differ about the Ne- 
braska law. I look upon that enactment not as a law, but as a violence, 
from the beginning. It was conceived in violence, passed in violence, 
is maintained in violence, and is being executed in violence. I say it 
was conceived in violence, because the destruction of the Missouri Com- 
promise under the Constitution was nothing less than violence. It was 
passed in violence, because it could not have passed at all but for the 
votes of many members in violent disregard of the known will of their 
constituents. It is maintained in violence, because the elections since 
clearly demand its repeal, and the demand is openly disregarded. 

" You say men ought to be hung for the way they are executing that 
law ; and I say the way it is being executed is quite as good as any of 
its antecedents. It is being executed in the precise way which was in- 
tended from the first, else, why does no Nebraska man express aston- 
ishment or condemnation ? Poor Reeder has been the only man who 
has been silly enough to believe that anything like fairness was ever 
intended, and he has been bravely undeceived. 

" That Kansas will form a slave constitution, and with it, will ask to 
be admitted into the Union, I take to be an already settled question, 
and so settled by the very means you so pointedly condemn. By every 
principle of law ever held by any court, North or South, every negro 
taken to Kansas is free ; and in utter disregard of this — in the spirit of 
violence merely — that beautiful legislature gravely passes a law to hang 
men who shall venture to inform a negro of his legal rights. This is 
the substance and real object of the law. If, like Haman, they should 
hang upon the gallows of their own building, I shall not be among the 
mourners for their fate. 

" In my humble sphere, I shall advocate the restoration of the Mis- 
souri Compromise so long as Kansas remains a territory ; and when, by 
all these foul means it seeks to come into the Union as a slave state, I 
shall oppose it. I am very loth, in any case, to withhold my assent to 
the enjoyment of property acquired or located in good faith ; but I do 
not admit that good faith in taking a negro to Kansas, to be held in 
slavery, is a possibility with any man. Any man who has sense enough 
to be the controller of his own property, has too much sense to misun- 
derstand the outrageous character of the whole Nebraska business. 

" But I digress. In my opposition to the admission of Kansas, I shall 
have some company; but we may be beaten. If we are, I shall not, on 
that account, attempt to dissolve the Union. I think it probable, how- 

*This confident prediction was made two years before the Lecompton Constitution 
was framed. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 147 

over, that we shall be beaten. Standing as a unit among yourselves, 

you can, directly, and indirectly, bribe enough of our men to carry the 
day— as you could on an open proposition (o establish monarchy. Get 
hold of some man in the North whose position and ability are such that 
he can make the support of your measure— whatever it may be— a dem- 
ocratic party necessity, and the thing is done. 

"Apropos of this, let me tell you an anecdote. Douglas introduced 
the Nebraska bill in January. In February, afterwards, there was a 
called session of the Illinois legislature. Of the one hundred members 
comprising the two branches of that body, about seventy were democrats. 
The latter held a caucus in which the Nebraska bill was talked of, if 
not formally discussed. Tt was thereby discovered that just three, and 
no more, were in favor of the measure. In a day or two, Douglas' 
orders came on to have resolutions passed, approving the bill, and they 
were passed by large majorities ! ! ) The truth of this is vouched for by 
a bolting democratic member. The masses, too, democratic as well as 
whig, were even more unanimous against it, but as soon as the party 
necessity of supporting it became apparent, the way the democracy 
began to see the wisdom and justice of it was perfectly astonishing. 

" You say if Kansas fairly votes herself a free state, as a Christian 
you will rather rejoice at it. All decent slaveholders talk that way, and 
I do not doubt their candor. But they never vote that way. Although, 
in a private letter or conversation you will express your preference that 
Kansas shall be free, you would vote for no man for Congress who would 
say the same thing publicly. No such man could be elected, from any 
district, or any slave state. You think Stringfejlow & Co. ought to be 
hung; and yet you will vote for the exact type and representation of 
Stringfellow. The slave-breeders and slave-traders are a small and de- 
tested class among you, and yet in politics they dictate the course of 
all of you, and are as completely your masters as you are the masters 
of your own negroes. 

" You inquire where I now stand. That is a disputed point, I think 
I am a whig; but others say there are no whigs, and that I am an abo- 
litionist. When I was in Washington, I voted for the Wilmot Proviso 
as good as forty times, and I never heard of any attempt to unwhig me 
for that. I now do no more than oppose the extension of slavery. I 
an^not a Know-Nothing,— that is certain. How could I be V How can 
any one who abhors the oppression of the negroes be in favor of de- 
grading classes of white people ? Our progress in degeneracy appears 
to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all 
men are created equal.' We now practically read it « all men are created 
equal except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will 
read, 'all men are created equal except negroes and foreigners and 
Catholics.' When it comes to that, I should prefer emigrating to some 



148 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

country where they make no pretense of loving liberty — to Russia for 
instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy 
of hypocrisy. 

" Your friend forever, 

"A. Lincoln." 

This letter, written with perfect freedom to an old personal 
friend attached to the interests of slavery in a slave state, 
gives with wonderful clearness the state of the slavery ques- 
tion at the time, and Mr. Lincoln's own views and feelings. 
Events justified the writer's judgment, and verified his pre- 
dictions. Mr. Lincoln still considered himself a whig. The 
name was one he loved, and the old party associations were very 
precious to him. But he was passing through the weaning 
process, and was realizing more and more, with the passage 
of every month, that there could be no resuscitation of the 
dead or dying organization. The interests of slavery had 
severed from it forever that portion that had made it a pow- 
erful national party. It could not extend itself an inch south 
of Mason's and Dixon's line. The slavery question was the 
great question. Opposition to the extension and encroach- 
ments of slavery was sectional, and any party which exer- 
cised this opposition, however broad its views might be, was 
necessarily sectional. Mr. Lincoln's logical mind soon dis- 
covered this, and accordingly we find him, May 29th, 1856, 
attending a convention at Bloomington, of those who were 
opposed to the democratic party. Here, and with Mr. Lin- 
coln's powerful assistance, the republican party of Illinois was 
organized, a platform adopted, a state ticket nominated, and 
delegates were appointed to the National Republican Conven- 
tion in Philadelphia, which was to be held on the seventeenth 
of the following month. ,, 

There is no doubt that, from the date of this meeting, he 
felt himself more a free man in politics than ever before. 
His hatred of slavery had been constantly growing, and now 
he was the member of a party whose avowed purpose it was 
to resist the extension of slavery, and to shut it up in the ter- 
ritory where it held its only rights under the Constitution. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 149 

The speech which he made on this occasion was one of distin- 
guished power and eloquence. Mr. iScripps, in the little 
sketch of his life to which an allusion has already beenTnade 
in this volume, says: "Never was an audience more com- 
pletely electrified by human eloquence. Again and again 
during the progress of its delivery, they sprang to their feet 
and upon the benches, and testified by long continued shouts 
and the waving of hats, how deeply the speaker had wrought 
upon their minds and hearts. It fused the mass of hitherto 
incongruous elements into perfect homogeneity, and from that 
day to the present they have worked together in harmonious 
and fraternal union. 

Mr. Lincoln was now regarded, not only by the republicans 
of Illinois, but by all the western states, as their- first man. 
Accordingly they presented his name to the national conven- 
tion as their candidate for the vice-presidency. On the in- 
formal ballot, he received one hundred and ten votes to two 
hundred and fifty-nine for Mr. Dayton. This, of course, de- 
cided the matter against him, but the vote was a compliment- 
ary one, and was Mr. Lincoln's formal introduction to the 
nation. Mr. Lincoln labored with his accustomed zeal during; 
the campaign for Fremont and Dayton, the republican nomi- 
nees, and had the pleasure, at the end of the canvass, of find- 
ing the state revolutionized. Colonel William H. Bissell, the 
opposition candidate for Governor, was elected by a notable 
majority, although there were men enough who were not 
aware that the whig party was dead to give the electoral vote 
to Mr. Buchanan, through their support of Mr. Fillmore. 

A little incident occurred during the campaign that illus- 
trated Mr. Lincoln's readiness in turning a political point. 
He was making a speech at Charleston, Coles County, when 
a voice called out, " Mr. Lincoln, is it true that you entered 
this state barefoot, driving a yoke of oxen?" Mr. Lincoln 
paused for full half a minute, as if considering whether he 
should notice such cruel impertinence, and then said that he 
thought he could prove the fact by at least a dozen men in 
the crowd, any one of whom was more respectable than his 



150 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOHjT. 

questioner. But the question seemed to inspire him, and he 
went on to show what free institutions had done for himself, 
and to exhibit the evils of slavery to the white man wherever 
it existed, and asked if it was not natural that he should hate 
slavery, and agitate against it. "Yes," said he, "we will 
speak for freedom and against slavery, as long as the Consti- 
tution of our country guarantees free speech, until everywhere 
on this wide land, the sun shall shine and the rain shall fall 
and the wind shall blow upon no man who goes forth to unre- 
quited toil." 

From this time to the close of his life, he was almost en- 
tirely absorbed by political affairs. He still took charge of 
important cases in court, and practiced his profession at inter- 
vals ; but he was regarded as a political man, and had many 
responsibilities thrown upon him by the new organization. 
During the summer succeeding the presidential canvass, and 
after Mr. Buchanan had taken his seat, Mr. Douglas was in- 
vited by the grand jury of the United States District Court 
for Southern Illinois, to deliver a speech at Springfield when 
the court was in session. In that speech, the senator showed 
the progress he had made in his departure from the doctrines 
of the fathers, by announcing that the framers of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, when they asserted that " all men are 
created equal," only meant to say that "British subjects on 
this continent were equal to British subjects born and residing 
in Great Britain." Mr. Lincoln was invited by a large num- 
ber of citizens to reply to this speech, and did so. After 
showing in his own quiet and ingenious way the absurdity of 
this assumption of Judge Douglas, telling his auditors that, 
as they were preparing to celebrate the Fourth of July, and 
would read the Declaration, he would like to have them read 
it in Judge Douglas' way, viz : "We hold these truths to be 
self-evident, that all British subjects who were on this conti- 
nent eighty-one years ago, were created equal to all British 
subjects born and then residing in Great Britain," — he said: 
" And now I appeal to all — to democrats as well as others : are 
you really willing that the Declaration shall thus be frittered 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 151 

away? — thus loft no more, at most, than an interesting memo- 
rial of the dead past? — thus shorn of it s vitality and its prac- 
tical value, and lcii without the germ or even the suggestion 
of the inalienable rights of man in it?" Thou Mr. Lineolu 
added his opinion as to what the authors of the Declaration 
intended; and it has probably never boon stated with a more 
catholic spirit, or in choicer terms : 

"I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include 
all men; but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects. 
They did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral 
developments, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable dii 
ness in what respects they did consider all men equal — equal in ci 
inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit oi 
piness. This they said and this they meant. They did not mean to 
assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that 
equality, nor yet that they were about to confer it upon them. In fact, 
they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to de- 
clare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fi 
circumstances should permit. They meant to set up a standard maxim 
for free society, which should be familiar to all and revered by all ; con- 
stantly looked to, constantly labored for, and, even though never per- 
fectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spread- 
ing and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value 
of life to all people of all colors everywhere." 

The project of making Kansas a slave state was in full 
progress. The event which Mr. Lincoln had so distinct! v 
prophesied — the formation of a pro-slavery constitution by 
unfair moans and alien agents — was in full view; and tho 
who were interested in it did their best to prepare the minds 
of the people for it. Political morality seemed at its lowest 
ebb. A whole party was bowing to the behests of slavery, 
and those who wore opposed to the institution and the pow< r 
born of it had become stupefied in the presence of its bold 
assumptions and rapid advances. People had ceased to bo 
surprised at any of its claims, and any exhibition of its spirit 
and policy. If Mr. Buchanan had any conscientious scruples, 
they were easily overborne, and he lent himself to the schemes 
of the plotters. A pre-slavery legislature was elected mainly 



152 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

by non-residents, at an election in which the free state men, 
who numbered three-fourths of the entire population, refused 
to participate, on account of illegality. This legislature, 
meeting at Lecompton, passed an act providing for the election 
of a convention to form a state constitution, preparatory to 
askino- an admission into the Union. In the clection'of this 
convention, the free state men took no part, on the ground 
that the legislature which ordered it had no legal authority. 
About two thousand votes w r ere cast, while the legal voters 
in the territory numbered more than ten thousand. The Le- 
compton Convention framed, of course, a pro-slavery consti- 
tution. It is not necessary to recount the means by w T hich 
this constitution w T as subsequently overthrown, and one pro- 
hibiting slavery substituted in its place. It is sufficient for 
the present purpose to state that upon the promulgation of the 
constitution formed at Lecompton, Robert J. Walker, then 
Governor of Kansas, went immediately to Washington to re- 
monstrate against its adoption by Congress, and that before 
he could reach the capitol it had received the approval of the 
President. 

These facts have place here to give the basis of the political 
relations between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas; for they were 
approaching their great struggle. The senatorial term of Mr. 
Douo-las was drawing to a close, and he wished to be indorsed 
by the people of Illinois, and returned to the Senate. The 
events of the previous year had shown him that a great polit- 
ical revolution was in progress, and that his seat was actually 
in danger. He saw what w T as going on in Kansas, and knew 
that the iniquities in progress there would be laid at his door. 
It was he who, in a time of peace, had opened the flood-gates 
of ao-itation. It was he who had given to the slave-power 
what it had not asked for, but could not consistently refuse. 
It was he who had gratuitously offered the slave-power the 
privilege of making territory forever set apart to freedom its 
own, if it could. He had divided his own party in his own 
state, and was losing his confidence as to his own political 
future. That he knew just what was coming in Kansas, and 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 153 

knew what the effect would be upon himself, is evident in the 
speech he made at Springfield, from Mr. Lincoln's reply to 
which a passage lias already been quoted. In this he under- 
took to shift to the shoulders of the republican party the bur- 
den he felt to be pressing upon his own. Speaking- of Kansas, 
he said: "The law under which her delegates are about to be 
elected is believed to be just and fair in all its objects and pro- 
visions. * * * If any portion of the inhabitants, acting under 
the advice of political leaders in distant states, shall choose to 
absent themselves from the [tolls, and withhold their votes with 
the view of leaving the free state democrats in the minority, 
and thus securing a pro-slavery constitution in opposition to 
the wishes of a majority of the people living under it, let the 
responsibility rest on those who, for partisan purposes, will sac- 
rifice the principles they profess to cherish and promote. Upon 
them and upon the political party for whose benefit and under 
the direction of whose leaders they act, let the blame be visited 
of fastening upon the people of a new state institutions repug- 
nant to their feelino-s and in violation of their wishes." 

In a subsequent passage of this same speech, he amplifies 
these points, and both passages show that he knew the nature 
of the constitution that would be framed, knew that the 
free state men would not vote at all because they believed 
the movement was an illegal one, and knew that he and his 
party would be held responsible for the outrage. It is further 
to be said that, by his words, on this occasion, he fully com- 
mitted himself, in advance, to whatever the Lecompton Con- 
vention might do. "The present election law in Kansas is 
acknowledged to be fair and just," he says. "Kansas is about 
to speak for herself," he declares. By these words alone, he 
was morally committed to whatever might be the conclusions 
of the convention. This is to be remembered, for Mr. Doug- 
las soon found that he could not shift the burden of the Kan- 
sas iniquity upon the opposition, and that his only hope of a 
re-election to the senate depended upon his taking issue with 
the administration on this very case, and becoming the cham- 
pion of the anti-Lee ompton men. 



CHAPTER XII. 

One of the most remarkable passages in Mr. Lincoln's 
history was his contest with Senator Douglas, in 1858, for the 
seat in the United States Senate which was soon to be vacated 
by the expiration of the term for which the latter was elected. 
Frequent allusion has been made to this already; but before 
proceeding to its description something further should be said 
of Mr. Douglas himself. 

Mr. Douglas was but little more than twenty years of age 
when, in 1833, he entered Illinois. He was poor — penniless, 
indeed. The first money he earned in the state was as the 
clerk of an auction sale. His next essay was in teaching 
school. He began to practice law during the second year, 
and at the age of twenty-two was elected Attorney General 
of the state. He resigned this office in 1835, and was elected 
a member of the legislature. .It was here that he and Abra- 
ham Lincoln met for the first time. In 1837, before he was 
twenty-five years old, he received the democratic nomination 
for Congress, and was only beaten by a majority of five votes. 
In 1840, he was appointed secretary of the state of Illinois, 
and in 1813 he was elected to Congress, and re-elected in 
1844 and 1846. Before he took his seat under the last elec- 
tion, he was elected to the United States Senate ; and his 
second term of service in this august body was about expiring 
at the present point of this history. 

The career of Mr. Douglas had been one of almost unin- 
terrupted political success. He was the recognized leader of 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 155 

the democratic party of Illinois, and had been known and felt 
as a positive power in national legislation. He had very de- 
cided opinions upon all the great questions passed upon by 
Congress, and, though not unfrequently at variance with the 
administrations he had himself assisted to place in power, his 
influence was great in whatever direction he might choose to 
exert it. He accomplished much in establishing and nourish- 
ing the prosperity of Illinois. No man did so much as Mr. 
Douglas for securing those magnificent grants of land which 
contributed to the development of his adopted state. To the 
material interests of Illinois, and the preservation of the power 
of the democratic party in that state, he was thoroughly de- 
voted ; and that party honored him with its entire confidence 
and almost unquestioning support. He was their first man; 
and they bestowed upon him, during his life, more honor than 
they ever gave to any other man living on their territory. 

Mr. Lincoln had watched this man, with admiration for his 
tact and respect for his power with the people. He had seen 
him winning the highest honors in their gift, and, if he did 
not envy him, it was not because he was not ambitious. It 
was because nothing so mean as envy could have place in him. 
That he regarded Mr. Douglas as an unscrupulous man in the 
use of means for securing his ambitious ends, there is no 
doubt; and although he would have refused honor and ofhVe 
on the terms on which Mr. Douglas received them, he was 
much impressed by the dignities with which the Senator was 
invested, and felt that the power he held was a precious, aye, 
a priceless, possession. 

From the original manuscript of one of Mr. Lincoln's 
speeches, these words are transferred to this biography : 
"Twenty-two years ago, Judge Douglas and I first became 
acquainted. We were both young then — he a trifle younger 
than I. Even then we were both ambitious, — I, perhaps, 
quite as much so as he. With me, the race of ambition has 
been a failure — a flat failure; with him, it has been one of 
splendid success. His name fills the nation, and is not un- 
known even in foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the 



156 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

high eminence he has reached. So reached that the oppressed 
of my species might have shared with me in the elevation, I 
would rather stand on that, eminence than wear the richest 
crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow." 

This extract touches the points of similarity between the 
two men, and their points of difference. Mr. Lincoln was far 
from insensible to the honors of Mr. Douglas' position; but 
he would not have them at the price Mr. Douglas had paid for 
them. The oppressed of his species had not shared with Mr. 
Douglas in his elevation. The slave had had none of his 
consideration; and he was in league with the slave's oppres- 
sor. It would not have been pleasant to Mr. Lincoln to wear 
the honors of Mr. Douglas, if, with them, he had been obliged 
to carry the responsibility of extending or giving latitude and 
lease to an institution which made chattels of men. Mr. 
Douglas looked upon slavery either with indifference or ap- 
proval. He had publicly said that he did not care whether 
slavery was "voted up or voted down" in the territories. 
Mr. Lincoln regarded slavery as a great moral, social and 
political wrong. Here was the vital difference between the 
two, recognized as such by Mr. Lincoln himself. 

After the adoption of the Lecompton Constitution in Kan- 
sas, Mr. Douglas having foreseen its character, and having 
virtually committed himself to it in advance — having, indeed, 
undertaken to make the republican party morally responsible 
for its existence and adoption, a change seems to have come 
over his opinions. Before he departed for Washington, to 
attend the session of 1857 and 1858, it was whispered that he 
was about to break with the administration on the Lecompton 
business. It is always pleasant to give men credit for the 
best motives ; and those under which he acted may have been 
the best. To oppose that constitution was certainly not in- 
consistent with his pet doctrine "popular sovereignty" when 
taken by itself, for nothing was more easily demonstrable than 
the fact that that constitution was not the act and deed of the 
people of Kansas — that it was in no sense an expression of 
their will. While this is true, it is proper to remember that 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 157 

Mr. Douglas was shrewd enough to see that he could not 
carry the burden of the Lecompton Constitution through the 
canvass for the senatorial prize, then imminent. The outrage 
was too flagrant to he ignored, and the facts too notorious to 
be disputed. He was also shrewd enough to see that his op- 
position to the Lecompton fraud would take from the republi- 
can party some of its best capital, and greatly distract the 
opposition in their efforts to defeat him. 

During that session of Congress Mr. Douglas fought a gal- 
lant and manly fight against the administration on the Le- 
compton question, and, on that question, voted and labored 
with the republicans. It was a bold step. Without Mr. 
Douglas, it is easy to see that the Lecompton Constitution 
would have been impossible. He voluntarily threw open the 
territory to this outrage. Then he tried to kill his own legiti- 
mate child. He forsook the men whom he had led into the 
great iniquity. The republicans were grateful for his aid, and 
were naturally drawn to him in sympathy because, for his 
efforts on behalf of justice in Kansas, he had incurred the 
enmity of Mr. Buchanan, who was regarded as a most willing 
tool in the hands of the slave power. 

The democratic state convention of Illinois assembled on 
the 21st of April, 1858, and endorsed Mr. Douglas in his 
position as an anti-Lecompton man. They placed a state 
ticket in the field, and engineered the canvass with such skill 
and vigor that the administration, through its office-holders, 
could make no headway against them. The power of Mr. 
Douglas over the politicians and masses in his own state, was 
never better illustrated than during this campaign, when all 
the patronage of the federal government could do nothing to 
defeat him. Before the close of the session, Mr. Douglas 
went home to look after his interests, and to prepare for the 
great campaign of his life. 

A large number of republicans in the eastern states who had 
not known Mr. Douglas at home, and who had Avitnessed his 
bold and gallant fight with the administration and the slave- 
power in the senate, expressed the wish that their friends in 



158 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Illinois might find it in the line of their duty to aid in return- 
ing him to the senate. The republicans of Illinois, however, 
felt that they knew the man better, and that their duty did 
not lie in that direction at all. They urged that Mr. Douglas 
did not agree with them in a single point of doctrine — that he 
had differed with the administration merely on a question of 
fact, whether the Lecompton Constitution was the act and deed 
of the people of Kansas. They averred that he adhered to the 
outrageous decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott 
case — that a negro cannot sue in a United States court, and 
that Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the territories — and 
that they dared not trust Mr. Douglas. To this it was re- 
plied that Mr. Douglas was coming over to the republican party 
as fast as he could carry his followers with him, and that his 
extraordinary hold upon the masses of the democratic party 
at the North would enable him to bring to the republican 
ranks a reinforcement which would prove irresistible at the 
approaching presidential election. The rejoinder of the Illi- 
nois republicans was that the probability of any sincere change 
of faith in Mr. Douglas was too remote and uncertain to war- 
rant them in abandoning an organization which had been 
formed to advance a great and just cause, and which, once 
dissolved, could not be re-formed in time to render efficient 
service in the election of 1860. Quite a controversy grew: 
out of the differences between the Illinois republicans and 
their eastern advisers, and no small degree of bitterness wa»* 
engendered. The party in Illinois was nearly a unit in its 
views, but the controversy had undoubtedly the influence to 
loosen the hold of the organization upon some of its members. 
The effect was temporary, however, for the issues of the cam- 
paign were so thoroughly discussed, and the discussions them- 
selves were so generally listened to, or read in the journals 
of the day, that it is doubtful whether Mr. Douglas gained 
any appreciable advantage from the controversy, or the sym- 
pathy of republicans in other states. 

The republican state convention met at Springfield on the 
sixteenth of June, nearly two months after the assembling of 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 159 

the democratic convention. Aside from the senatorial ques- 
tion, there was but little interest in the proceedings. For 
state officers, only a treasurer and a superintendent of public 
instruction were to be nominated, and, besides these officers, 
only the members of a legislature were to he elected. Nearly 
six hundred delegates were present in the convention, and 
they, with their alternates, completed a round thousand of 
earnest men, gathered from all parts of the state. The fifth 
resolution adopted on this occasion covers the grand issue 
made with Judge Douglas. 

" That while we deprecate all interference on the part of political 
organizations with the judiciary, if such action is limited to its appro- 
priate sphere, yet we cannot refrain from expressing our condemnation 
of the principles and tendencies of the extra-judicial opinions of a ma- 
jority of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the 
matter of Dred Scott, wherein the political heresy is put forth that the 
federal constitution extends slavery into all the territories of the Re- 
public, and so maintains it that neither Congress nor the people through 
the territorial legislature can by law abolish it. We hold that Congress 
possesses sovereign power over the territories, and has the right to 
govern and control them whilst they remain in a territorial condition, 
and that it is the duty of the general government to protect the terri- 
tories from the curse of slavery, and to preserve the public domain for 
the occupation of free men and free labor; and we declare that no 
power on earth can carry and maintain slavery in the states against the 
will of their people and the provisions of their constitutions and laws; 
and we fully indorse the recent decision of the Supreme Court of our 
own state, which declares that property in persons is repugnant to the 
Constitution and laws of Illinois, and that all persons within its juris- 
diction are presumed to be free, and that slavery, where it exists, is a 
municipal regulation, without any extra-territorial operation." 

If there were men in the convention who had at first been 
affected by the representations of the republicans in the east- 
ern states, the action of the democratic convention which met 
in April had restored their determination to stand by their 
party and its candidates. That convention had denounced 
the republicans, had indorsed the old democratic platform of 
the party adopted at Cincinnati in national convention, and, 
while it approved the course of Senator Douglas, failed to 



lo'O LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

say one word in condemnation of the course and principles, 
or, rather, lack of principles, of Mr. Buchanan and his ad- 
ministration. The republican convention had hardly assem- 
bled before it was discovered that there was entire unanimity 
for Mr. Lincoln, as their nominee in opposition to Mr. Douglas. 
When a banner from Chicago was borne into the convention, 
inscribed with the words — " Cook County for Abraham Lin- 
coln " — the whole convention rose to its feet, and gave three 
cheers for the candidate whom it was proposed to place in the 
field in opposition to the champion of " popular sovereignty." 
That the convention was embarrassed and doubtful as to re- 
sults, there is no question. Mr. Douglas had the sympathy of 
many republicans abroad, he had attacked a hated adminis- 
tration with great vigor and persistence, he had the enmity 
of that administration, and, in the state, he had the advantage 
of an unjust apportionment of legislative districts, by which 
not less than ninety-three thousand people were virtually dis- 
franchised.* Though it was not according to the wish of 
many of the members of the convention to make a formal 
nomination for the senate, yet, as Mr. Douglas had already 
declared that it was the intention to use Mr. Lincoln's narrie 
during the canvass, and to adopt another name in the legisla- 
ture, the following resolution was brought forward, and unani- 
mously adopted : 

"That Hon. Abraham Lincoln is our first and only choice for 
United States Senator, to fill the vacancy about to be created by the 
expiration of Mr. Douglas' term of office." 

The anxiety of the convention to see and hear their chosen 
man and champion was intense ; and frequent calls were made 
for him during the day. That Mr. Lincoln expected the 
nomination, and had prepared himself for it, is evident. It 
was announced at length that he Avould address the members 
of the convention at the State House in the evening. During 
the day, he was busy in giving the finishing touches to his 
speech, which had been prepared with unusual care, every 

* Scripps, p. 24. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1G1 

sentence having been carefully weighed. lie had put into it 
what he believed to be the real issues of the campaign, and 
had laid out in it the ground upon which he proposed to stand, 
and fight his battles. Before going to the hall, he entered his 
law office, where Mr. Herndon, his partner, was sitting, and 
turned the key against all intrusion. Taking out his manu- 
script, he read to Mr. Herndon the first paragraph of his 
speech, and asked him for his opinion of it. Mr. Herndon 
replied that it was all true, but he doubted whether it was 
good policy to give it utterance at that time. "That makes 
no difference," responded Mr. Lincoln. "It is the truth, and 
the nation is entitled to it." Then, alluding to a quotation 
which he had made from the Bible — "A house divided against 
itself cannot stand," he said that he wished to give an illus- 
tration familiar to all, "that he who reads may run." "The 
proposition is true," said Mr. Lincoln, "and has been true for 
six thousand years, and I will deliver it as it is written." 

At eight o'clock, the hall of the House of Representatives 
was tilled to its utmost capacity, and when Mr. Lincoln ap- 
peared he was received with the most tumultuous applause. 
The speech which he made on that occasion is so full of mean- 
ing, so fraught with prophecy, so keen in its analysis, so irre- 
sistible in its logic, so profoundly intelligent concerning the 
politics of the time, and, withal, so condensed in the expression 
of every part, that no proper idea can be given of it through 
any description or abbreviation. It must be given entire. 

Mr. Lincoln said: 

" If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, 
we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far 
into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated with the avowed object 
and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under 
the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but 
has constantly augmented. In rny opinion, it will not cease, until a 
crisis shall have been reached and passed. ' A house divided against 
itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure perma- 
nently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dis- 
solved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease 
to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either 
11 



162 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place 
it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course 
of ultimate extinction ; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall 
become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new — North as well 
as South. 

" Have we no tendency to the latter condition ? 

" Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost 
complete legal combination — piece of machinery, so to speak — com- 
pounded of the Nebraska doctrine, and the Dred Scott decision. Let 
him consider not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and 
how well adapted; but also, let him study the history of its construction, 
and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidences of 
design, and concert of action among its chief architects, from the be- 
ginning. 

" The new year of 1S54 found slavery excluded from more than half 
the states by State Constitutions, and from most of the national terri- 
tory by Congressional prohibition. Four days later, commenced the 
struggle which ended in repealing that Congressional prohibition. This 
opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the first point 
gained. 

" But, so far, Congress only had acted ; and an indorsement by the 
people, real or apparent, was indispensable, to save the point already 
gained, and give chance for more. 

" This necessity had not been overlooked ; but had been provided for, 
as well as might be, in the notable argument of ' squatter sovereignty,' 
otherwise called ' sacred right of self-government,' which latter phrase, 
though expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so 
perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this : That 
if any one man choose to enslave another, no third man shall be allowed 
to object. That argument was incorporated into the Nebraska bill 
itself, in the language which follows : ' It being the true intent and 
meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, 
nor to exclude it therefrom ; but to leave the people thereof perfectly 
free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, 
subject only to the Constitution of the United States.' Then opened the 
roar of loose declamation in favor of ' squatter sovereignty,' and ' sacred 
right of self-government.' ' But,' said opposition members, ' let us amend 
the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the territory may 
exclude slavery.' ' Not we,' said the friends of the measure ; and down 
they voted the amendment. 

" While the Nebraska bill was passing through Congress, a law case 
involving the question of a negro's freedom, by reason of his owner 
having voluntarily taken him first into a free state and then into a ter- 
ritory covered by the Congressional prohibition, and held him as a slave 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN [63 

for a long time in each, was passing through the United States Circuit 
Court Cor the District of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and lawsuit 
were brought to a decision in the Baine month of May, 1854. The ne- 
gro's nam.' was ' Dred Scott, 1 which name now designates the decision 
finally made in the ease. Before the then next presidential election, 
the law case came to, and was argued in the Supreme Court of the 
United States, but the decision of it -was deferred until after the elec- 
tion. Still, before the election. Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the 
Senate, requested the leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his 
opinion whether the people of a territory can constitutionally exclude 
slavery from their limits ,- and the latter answers: ' That is a question 
for the Supreme Court.' 

"The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorse- 
ment, such as it was, secured. That was the second point gained. The 
indorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular majority by nearly 
four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly 
reliable and satisfactory. The outgoing President, in his last annual 
message, as impressively as possible echoed back upon the people the 
weight and authority of the indorsement. The Supreme Court met 
again ; did not announce their decision, but ordered a re-argument. 
The presidential inauguration came, and still no decision of the court; 
but the incoming president in his inaugural address fervently exhorted 
the people to abide by the forthcoming decision, whatever it might be. 
Then, in a few days, came the decision. 

" The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an early occasion to 
make a speech at this capital indorsing the Dred Scott decision, and 
vehemently denouncing all opposition to it. The new president, too, 
seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse and strongly 
construe that decision, and to express his astonishment that any different 
view had ever been entertained! 

•• At length a squabble springs up between the president and the au- 
thor of the Nebraska bill, on the mere question of fact, whether the 
Lecompton Constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made by the 
people of Kansas; and in that quarrel the latter declares that all he 
wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he cares not whether slavery 
be voted down or voted up. I do not understand his declaration that 
he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up to be intended 
by him other than as an apt definition of the policy he would impress 
upon the public mind— the principle for which he declares he has suf- 
fered so much, and is ready to sutler to the end. And well may he cling 
to that principle. If he has any parental feeling, well may he cling to 
it. That principle is the only shred left of his original Nebraska doc- 
trine. Under the Dred Scott decision squatter sovereignty squatted 
out of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding — like the 



1G4 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

mould at the foundry, served through one blast and fell back into loose 
sand — helped to carry an election, and then was kicked to the winds. 
His late joint struggle with the republicans, against the Lecompton 
Constitution, involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That 
struggle was made on a point — the right of a people to make their own 
constitution — upon which he and the republicans have never differed- 

" The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with 
Senator Douglas' 'care not' policy, constitute the piece of machinery, 
in its present state of advancement. This was the third point gained. 
The working points of that machinery are : 

"First, That no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and no 
descendant of such slave, can ever be a citizen of any state, in the sense 
of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States. This 
point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible event, of 
the benefit of that provision" of the United States Constitution, which 
declares that ' The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privi- 
leges and immunities of citizens in the several states.' 

" Secondly, That ' subject to the Constitution of the United States,' 
neither Congress nor a territorial legislature can exclude slavery from 
any United States territory. This point is made in order that individ- 
ual men may fill up the territories with slaves, without danger of losing 
them as property, and thus to enhance the chances of permanency to 
the institution through all the future. 

" Thirdly, That whether the holding a negro in actual slavery in a 
free state, makes him free, as against the holder, the United States 
courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of any 
slave state the negro may be forced into by the master. This point is 
made, not to be pressed immediately; but, if acquiesced in for awhile, 
and apparently indorsed by the people at an election, then to sustain the 
logical conclusion that what Dred Scott's master might lawfully do with 
Dred Scott, in the free state of Illinois, every other master may lawfully 
do with any other one, or one thousand slaves, in Illinois, or in any 
other free state. 

" Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska 
doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate and mould public opinion, 
at least northern public opinion, not to care whether slavery is voted 
down or voted up. This shows exactly where we now are ; and par- 
tially, also, whither we are tending. 

" It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back, and run the 
mind over the string of historical facts already stated. Several things 
will now appear less dark and mysterious than they did when tliey were 
transpiring. The people were to be left ' perfectly free,' ' subject only 
to the Constitution.' What the Constitution had to do with it, out- 
siders could not then see. Plainly enough now, it was an exactly fitted 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 165 

niche, for the Dred Scott decision to afterward conic in, and declare the 
perfect freedom of the people to be just no freedom at all. Why was 
the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people, voted 
down'.-' Plainly enough now: the adoption of it would have spoiled the 
niche for the Dred Scott decision. Why was-Jhe court decision held 
upV Why even a senator's individual opinion withheld, till after the 
presidential election? Plainly enough now: the speaking out then 
would have damaged the perfectly free argument upon which the elec- 
tion was to be carried. Why the out-going president's felicitation on 
the indorsement? Why the delay of a re-argument V Why the incom- 
ing president's advance exhortation in favor of the decision? These 
things look like the cautious patting and petting of a spirited horse 
preparatory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the 
rider a fall. And why the hasty after-indorsement of the decision by 
the president and others ? 

•• We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the 
result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different 
portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and 
places and by different workmen — Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James, 
for instance — and when we see these timbers joined together, and see 
tliey exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mor- 
tices exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different 
pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too 
many or too few — not omitting even scaffolding — or, if a single piece be 
lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared yet 
to bring such piece in — in such a case, Ave find it impossible not to 
believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood 
one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or 
draft drawn up before the first blow was struck. 

"It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska bill, the people 
of a .stale as well as territory, were to be left 'perfectly free,' 'subject 
only to the Constitution.' Why mention a state ? They were legisla- 
ting for territories, and not for or about states. Certainly the people 
of a state are and ought to be subject to the Constitution of the United 
States; but why is mention of this lugged into this merely territorial 
law? Why are the people of a territory and the people of a state 
therein lumped together, and their relation to the Constitution therein 
treated as being precisely the same? While the opinion of the court, 
by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the separate opin- 
ions of all the concurring judges, expressly declare that the Constitution 
of the United States neither permits Congress nor a territorial legisla- 
ture to exclude slavery from any United States territory, they all omit 
to declare whether or not the same Constitution permits a state, or 
the people of a state, to exclude it. Possibly, this is a mere omission; 



166 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

i 
but who can be quite sure, if McLean or Curtis had sought to get into 
the opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a state to 
exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Mace sought to get 
such declaration, in behalf of the people of a territory, into the Ne- 
braska bill; — I ask, who can be quite sure that it would not have been 
voted down in the one case as it had been in the other? The nearest 
approach to the point of declaring the power of a state over slavery, is 
made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than once, using the 
precise idea, and almost the language, too, of the Nebraska act. On 
one occasion, his exact language is, ' except in cases where the power is 
restrained by the Constitution of the United States, the law of the 
state is supreme over the subject of slavery within its jurisdiction.' In 
what cases the power of the states is so restrained by the United States 
Constitution, is left an open question, precisely as the same question 
as to the restraint on the power of the territories was left open in the 
Nebraska act. Put this and that together, and we have another nice 
little niche, which we may, ere long, see rilled with another Supreme 
Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States 
does not permit a stale to exclude slavery from its limits. And this may 
especially be expected if the doctrine of 'care not whether slavery be 
voted down or voted up,' shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently to 
give promise that such a decision can be maintained when made. 

" Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in 
all the states. Welcome, or unwelcome, such decision is probably com- 
ing, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present political 
dynasty shall be met and overthrown. We shall lie down pleasantly 
dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the verge of making their 
state free, and we shall awake to the reality instead, that the Supreme 
Court has made Illinois a slave state. To meet and overthroAv the 
• power of that dynasty, is the work now before all those who would 
prevent that consummation. That is what we have to do. How can 
we best do it ? 

" There are those who denounce us openly to their own friends, and 
yet whisper us softly that Senator Douglas is the aptest instrument 
there is with which to effect that object. They wish us to infer all, from 
the fact that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of the 
dynasty ; and that he has regularly voted with us on a single point, 
upon which he and we have never differed. They remind us that he is 
a great man, and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let this 
be granted. But ' a living dog is better than a dead lion.' Judge 
Douglas, if not a dead lion, for this work, is at least a caged and tooth- 
less one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care 
anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing the 'public heart' 
to care nothing about it. A leading Douglas democratic newspaper 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1G7 

thinks Douglas' superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of 
the African slave trade. Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that 
trade is approaching? lie has not said so. Does he really think so? 
But if it is, how can he resist it ? For years he has labored to prove it 
a sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into the new territories. 
Can he possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where 
they can be bought cheapest ? And unquestionably they can be bought 
cheaper in Africa than in Virginia. He has done all in his power to 
reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere right of property ; 
and as such, how can he oppose the foreign slave trade — how can he 
refuse that trade in that ' property ' shall be ' perfectly free '—unless he 
does it as a protection to the home production ? And as the home pro- 
ducers will probably not ask the protection, he Avill be wholly without 
a ground of opposition. 

" Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully be wiser 
to-day than he was yesterday— that he may rightfully change when he 
finds himself wrong. But can we, for that reason, run ahead, and infer 
that he will make any particular change of which he himself has given 
no intimation? Can we safely base our action upon any such vague 
inference? Now, as ever, I wish not to misrepresent Judge Douglas' 
position, question his motives, or do aught that can be personally offens- 
ive to him. Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on prin- 
ciple so that our cause may have assistance from his great ability, I hope 
to have interposed no adventitious obstacle. But clearly, he is not now 
with us— he does not pretend to be — he does not promise ever to be. 

" Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own 
undoubted friends — those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the 
work— who do care for the result. Two years ago the Republicans of 
the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong. AVe did 
this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with 
every external circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and 
even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and 
fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, 
proud and pampered enemy Did we brave all then, to falter now?— 
now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered and belligerent? 
The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail— if we stand firm, we 
shall not fad. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, 
sooner or later, the victory is sure to come." 

The members of the convention carried away with them 
something to think about. There had been in Mr. Lincoln's 
speech no appeals to their partisan prejudices, no tricks to 
catch applause. He had appeared before them as an earnest, 



168 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

patriotic man, intent only on discussing, in the gravest and 
most candid manner, the most interesting and momentous po- 
litical questions. 

On the ninth of July, Mr. Douglas made a speech in Chi- 
cago. The reception he received was a magnificent one — one 
which might well have filled him with the Gratification which 
he did not attempt to conceal — which, indeed, he took repeated 
occasion to express. In this speech he alluded to his efforts to 
crush the Lecompton fraud, and claimed that the republicans 
who had fought by his side had indorsed his popular sover- 
eignty doctrine — the right of the people of a territory to form 
their own institutions. 

He then took up the action of the republican convention at 
Springfield, and spoke at length of Mr. Lincoln and his speech. 
Of Mr. Lincoln, he said: "I take great pleasure in saving 
that I have known, personally and intimately, for about a 
quarter of a century, the worthy gentleman who has been 
nominated for my place, and I will say that I regard him as a 
kind, amiable and intelligent gentleman, a good citizen and an 
honorable opponent ; and whatever issue I may have with him 
will be of principle and not of personalities." He then read 
from the opening paragraph of Mr. Lincoln's speech the 
words : " A house divided against itself cannot stand. I be- 
lieve this government cannot endure permanently half slave 
and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I 
do not expect the house to fall ; but I do expect it to cease to 
be divided. It Avill become all one tiling or all the other." 
The unfairness of his comments upon this simple statement of 
a conviction may be gathered from the construction which he 
put upon it in the words — "Mr. Lincoln advocates boldly and 
clearly a war of sections, a war of the North against the 
South, of the free states against the slave states, a war of ex- 
termination, to be continued relentlessly, until the one or the 
other shall be subdued, and all the states shall either become 
free or become slave." 

Mr. Lincoln foresaw the approaching struggle between 
freedom and slavery and its inevitable result. He did not be- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 1G9 

licve a dissolution of the Union possible, but lie knew that 
freedom and slavery were irreconcilable enemies. lie knew 
that slavery must die, or become national. He saw the de- 
termination of its friends to make it national, and he believed 
that this attempt would succeed, or that, failing of success, it 
woidd end in the universal abolition of slavery. Events have 
entirely justified his most philosophical view of the subject. 

The next point that Mr. Douglas endeavored to make was 
as illegitimate as his previous one, viz : that Mr. Lincoln de- 
sired to reduce the states to a dead uniformity of interests and 
institutions, contrary to the theory and policy of the fathers 
of the republic. In order to do this, he Avas of course obliged 
to ignore the fact that Mr. Lincoln had alluded to but one in- 
stitution, and that, in its nature antagonistic with the principles 
of the Declaration of Independence, and to recognize slavery 
as having the same legitimate basis with the other institutions 
of the country. Having construed Mr. Lincoln's position 
unfairly, he logically drove to the unjust conclusion that when 
the uniformity should be attained which Mr. Lincoln desired, 
the government would have "converted these thirty-two sov- 
ereign, independent states, into one consolidated empire, with 
the uniformity of disposition reigning triumphant throughout 
the length and breadth of the land." 

He next took up Mr. Lincoln's criticism of the Dred Scott 
decision, and, by his treatment of it, fully vindicated the ac- 
tion of the Illinois republicans in their refusal to support him 
in accordance with the wishes of their eastern friends. Xo 
republican could consistently support a man who supported 
that iniquitous and barbarous decision. If it is said that his 
course on this question would have been changed by their 
support, the case is still worse, for no man Avhose course could 
be changed by such considerations would be worthy of the 
support of any party. " I am opposed to this doctrine of Mr. 
Lincoln," said Mr. Douglas, "by which he proposes to take 
an appeal from the decision of the Supreme Court of the 
L T nited States upon this high constitutional question, to a re- 
publican caucus sitting in the country. * * * I respect the 



170 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

decisions of that august tribunal; I shall always bow in def- 
erence to them. * * * I will sustain the judicial tribunals and 
constituted authorities, in all matters Avithin the pale of their 
jurisdiction, as defined by the Constitution." Mr. Douglas did 
not see fit to allude in this speech to Mr. Lincoln's charge that 
the Dred Scott decision was a part of that building framed so 
cunningly by " Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James," in which 
was to be conserved the power of making slavery universal. 
Mr. Douglas went farther than simply to indorse the Dred 
Scott decision, and to declare his intention to sustain it. " I 
am equally free," said he, " to say that the reason assigned by 
Mr. Lincoln for resisting the decision of the Supreme Court 
in the Dred Scott case does not, in itself, meet my approba- 
tion. * * * He says it is wrong, because it deprives the negro 
of the benefit of that clause of the Constitution which says 
that the citizens of one state shall enjoy all the privileges and 
immunities of the citizens of the several states ; in other 
words, he thinks it wrong because it deprives the negro of 
the privileges, immunities and rights of citizenship which 
pertain, accoixling to that decision, only to the white man. 
I am free to say to you that, in my opinion, this government 
of ours is founded on the white basis. It was made for the 
white man, for the benefit of the white man, to be administered 
by white men, in such manner as they should determine. It 
is also true that a negro, an Indian, or any other man of infe- 
rior race to a white man should be permitted to enjoy, and 
humanity requires that he should have, all the rights, privi- 
leges and immunities which he is capable of exercising, con- 
sistent with the safety of society." What these rights should 
be, was only legitimately to be determined by the states them- 
selves, in Mr. Douglas' opinion. Illinois had decided for 
herself what the black man's rights were in Illinois, and New 
York and Maine had decided for themselves. By inference, 
Kentucky had a right to say her negroes should be slaves, 
Illinois that her negroes should not vote, New York that her 
negroes might vote when qualified by property, and Maine 
that the negro was equal at the polls to the white man. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 171 

These were the main points that Mr. Douglas made in his 
Chicago speech. Mr. Lincoln sat near him, on the platform, 
and heard the Avhole of it. Here, as elsewhere during the 
campaign which succeeded, he manifested his wonderful jrood 
nature under misrepresentation. There were incidents of this 
campaign which no man cast in the common mould could have 
passed through without yielding to the severest passions of 
indignation and anger. He was belied, abused, misrepre- 
sented ; but he never betrayed a moment's irritation. That 
lie smarted with a sense of wrong, there is abundant evidence ; 
but he was never moved to a single act of resentment. 

Mr. Lincoln had taken the speech all in, and, on the follow- 
ing evening, it was announced that he would reply to it. The 
greeting which he received when he took the stand was quite 
as enthusiastic as that which Mr. Douglas had met on the 
previous evening. He was introduced to the audience by 
Mr. C. L. Wilson of Chicago, and ay hen he came forward, 
there was such a storm of long-continued applause that he 
was obliged to extend his hand in deprecation, before he could 
secure the silence necessary for proceeding. After disposing 
of some minor matters, he took up the points of Mr. Douglas' 
speech and treated them fully. Touching the comments upon 
his OAvn declaration — " a house divided against itself cannot 
stand. I believe this gOA'ernment cannot endure permanently 
half slave and half free," &c, he said: 

" I am not, in the first place, unaware that this Government has en- 
dured eighty-two years, half slave and half free. I know that. I am 
tolerably Avell acquainted with the history of the country, and I know 
that it has endured eighty-tAvo years, half slave and half free. I believe — 
and that is what I meant to allude to there — I believe it has endured, 
because during all that time, until the introduction of the Nebraska 
bill, the public mind did rest all the time in the belief that slavery was 
in course of ultimate extinction. That Avas what gave us the rest that 
we had through that period of eighty-two years ; at least, so I believe. 
I have always hated slavery, I think, as much as any abolitionist — I 
have been an old line whig — I have always hated it, but I have always 
been quiet about it until this new era of the introduction of the Ne- 
braska bill began. I always believed that everybody was against it, 
and that it was in course of ultimate extinction. 



172 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

" The adoption of the Constitution and its attendant history led the 
people to believe so ; and such was the belief of the framers of the 
Constitution itself, else -why did those old men, about the time of the 
adoption of the Constitution, decree that slavery should not go into 
the new territory, where it had not already gone V Why declare that 
within twenty years the African slave trade, by which slaves are sup- 
plied, might be cut off by Congress ? "Why were all these acts ? I 
might enumerate more of these acts — but enough. What were they 
but a clear indication that the framers of the Constitution intended 
and expected the ultimate extinction of that institution V And now, 
when I say, as I said in my speech that Judge Douglas has quoted 
from — -when I say that I think the opponents of slavery will resist the 
farther spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest with 
the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, I only mean to 
say that they will place it where the founders of this Government orig- 
inally placed it. 

" I have said a hundred times, and I have now no inclination to take 
it back, that I believe there is no right, and ought to be no inclination 
in the people of the free states to enter into the slave states, and inter- 
fere with the question of slavery at all. I have said that always ; Judge 
Douglas has heard me say it — if not quite a hundred times, at least as 
good as a hundred times ; and when it is said that I am in favor of 
interfering with slavery where it exists, I know it is unwarranted by 
anything I have ever intended, and, as I believe, by anything I have 
ever said. If, by any means, I have ever used language which could 
fairly be so construed (as, however, I believe I never have), I now cor- 
rect it." 

The next point touched upon was Judge Douglas' charge 
that Mr. Lincoln was in favor of reducing the institutions of 
all the states to uniformity: 

" Now in relation to his inference that I am in favor of a general 
consolidation of all the local institutions of the various states. I will 
attend to that for a little while, and try to inquire, if I can, how on 
earth it could be that any man could draw such an inference from any- 
thing I said. I have said, very many times, in Judge Douglas' hearing, 
that no man believed more than I in the principle of self-government; 
that it lies at the bottom of all my ideas of just government, from be- 
ginning to end. I have denied that his use of that term applies properly. 
But for the thing itself, I deny that any man has ever .gone ahead of me 
in his devotion to the principle, whatever he may have done in efficiency 
in advocating it. I think that I have said it in your hearing — that I 
believe each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 173 

himself and the fruit of his labor, so far as it in no wise interferes with 

any other man's rights — that each community, as a state, has a right to 
do exactly as it [(leases with all the concerns within that state that 
interferes with the right of no other state, and that the general govern- 
ment, upon principle, has no right to interfere with anything other than 
that general class of things that does concern the whole. I have said 
that at all times. I have said as illustrations, that 1 do not believe 
in the right of Illinois to interfere with the cranberry laws of Indi- 
ana, the oyster laws of Virginia, or the liquor laws of Maine. I have 
said these things over and over again, and I repeat them here as my 
sentiments. 

"How is it, then, that Judge Douglas infers, because I hope to see 
slavery put where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in 
the course of ultimate extinction, that I am in favor of Illinois going 
over and interfering with the cranberry laws of Indiana? What can 
authorize him to draw any such inference ? I suppose there might be 
one thing that at Least enabled him to draw such an inference that would 
not be true with me or many others, that is, because he look's upon all 
this matter of slavery as an exceedingly little thing — this matter of 
keeping one-sixth of the population of the whole nation in a state of 
oppression and tyranny unequaled in the world. He looks upon it as 
being an exceedingly little thing — only equal to the question of the 
cranberry laws of Indiana — as something having no moral question in 
it — as something on a par with the question of whether a man shall 
pasture his land with cattle, or plant it with tobacco — so little and so 
small a thing, that he concludes, if I could desire that if anything should 
be done to bring about the ultimate extinction of that little thing, I 
must be in favor of bringing about an amalgamation of all the other 
little things in the Union. Now, it so happens — and there, I presume, 
is the foundation of this mistake — that the Judge thinks thus ; and it so 
happens that there is a vast portion of the American people that do not 
look upon that matter as being this very little thing. They look upon 
it as a vast moral evil; they can prove it such by the writings of 
those who gave us the blessings of liberty which we enjoy, and that 
they so looked upon it, not as an evil merely confining itself to the 
states where it is situated; and while we agree that, by the Constitution 
we assented to, in the states where it exists we have no right to interfere 
with it, because it is in the Constitution ; we are by both duty and in- 
clination to stick by that Constitution, in all its letter and spirit, from 
beginning to end. 

" So much then as to my disposition — my wish — to have all the state 
legislatures blotted out, and to have one consolidated government, and 
a uniformity of domestic regulations in all the states by which I suppose 
it is meant, if we raise corn here, we must make sugar-cane grow here 



174 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

too, and we must make those which grow North grow in the South. 
All this I suppose he understands I am in favor of doing. Now, so 
much for all this nonsense — for I must call it so. The Judge can have 
no issue with me on a question of establishing uniformity in the domes- 
tic regulations of the states." 

Concerning the Drcd Scott decision he said : 

" I have expressed heretofore, and I now repeat, my opposition to the 
Dred Scott decision, but I should be allowed to state the nature of that 
opposition, and I ask your indulgence while I do so. What is fairly im- 
plied by the term Judge Douglas has used, 'resistance to the decision?' 
I do not resist it. If I wanted to take Dred Scott from his master, I 
would be interfering with property, and that terrible difficulty that 
Judge Douglas speaks of, of interfering with property would arise. 
But I am doing no such thing as that, but all that I am doing is refus- 
ing to obey it as a political rule. If I were in Congress, and a vote 
should come up on a question whether slavery should be prohibited in 
a new territory, in spite of the Dred Scott decision, I would vote that 
it should. 

" That is what I would do. Judge Douglas said last night, that 
before the decision he might advance his opinion, and it might be 
contrary to the decision when it was made ; but after it was made he 
would abide by it until it was reversed. Just so ! "We let this prop- 
erty abide by the decision, but we will try to reverse that decision. 
We will try to put it where Judge Douglas would not object, for he 
says he will obey it until it is reversed. Somebody has to reverse that 
decision, since it is made, and we mean to reverse it, and we mean to do 
it peaceably. 

" What are the uses of decisions of courts V They have two uses. 
As rules of property they have two uses. First — they decide upon the 
question before the court. They decide in this case that Dred Scott is 
a slave. Nobody resists that. Not only that, but they say to every- 
body else, that persons standing just as Dred Scott stands, is as he is. 
That is, they say that when a question comes up upon another person, 
it will be so decided again, unless the court decides in another way, 
unless the court overrules its decision. Well, we mean to do what we 
can to have the court decide the other way. That is one thing we mean 
to try to do. 

. " The sacredness that Judge Douglas throws around this decision, is 
a degree of sacredness that has never been before thrown around any 
other decision. I have never heard of such a thing. Why, decisions 
apparently contrary to that decision, or that good lawyers thought were 
contrary to that decision, have been made by that very court before. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 175 

It is the first of its kind; it is an astonisher in legal history. It is a 
new wonder of the world. It is based upon falsehood in the main as 
to the facts — allegations of facts upon which it stands are not facts 
at all in many instances — and no decision made on any question — the 
first instance of a decision made under so many unfavorable circum- 
stances—thus placed, has ever been held by the profession as law, 
and it has always needed confirmation before the lawyers regarded 
it as settled law. But Judge Douglas will have it that all hands must 
take this extraordinary decision, made under these extraordinary cir- 
cumstances, and give their vote in Congress in accordance with it, 
yield to it and obey it in every possible sense. Circumstances alter 
cases. Do not gentlemen here remember the case of that same Su- 
preme Court, some twenty-five or thirty years ago, deciding that a 
national bank was constitutional? I ask, if somebody does not re- 
member that a national bank was declared to be constitutional? Such 
is the truth, whether it be remembered or not. The bank charter ran 
out, and a re-charter was granted by Congress. That re-charter was 
laid before General Jackson. It was urged upon him, when he denied 
the constitutionality of the bank that the Supreme Court had decided 
it was constitutional; and General Jackson then said that the Supreme 
Court had no right to lay down a rule to govern a co-ordinate branch 
of the Government, the members of which had sworn to support the 
Constitution — that each member had sworn to support that Constitu- 
tion as he understood it. I will venture here to say, that I have heard 
Judge Douglas say that he approved of General Jackson for that act. 
What has now become of all his tirade about 'resistance to the Su- 
preme Court?'" 



There were some passages In this speech which illustrated 
Mr. Lincoln's readiness in " putting things " to the common 
apprehension. After having said that the much vaunted 
" popular sovereignty " which Mr. Douglas had put forth as 
his own invention was something which, when properly de- 
fined, the republicans had always accepted and acted upon, 
and that it came, not from Judge Douglas, but from the 
Declaration of Independence, which states that governments 
derive their just powers "from the consent of the governed," 
he alluded to the defeat of the Lecompton Constitution in 
Congress. He said that the republicans took ground ao-ainst 
the Lecompton Constitution long before Judge Douglas did, 
and that he held in his hand a speech in which he urged the 



176 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

same reason against Douglas the year before that he (Doug- 
las) was urging now. He went on : 

" A little more, now, as to this matter of popular sovereignty and the 
Lecompton Constitution. The Lecompton Constitution, as the Judge 
tells us, was defeated. The defeat of it was a good thing, or it was not. 
He thinks the defeat of it was a good thing, and so do I, and we agree 
in that. Who defeated it ? 

" A voice — ' Judge Douglas.' 

" Mr. Lincoln — Yes, he furnished himself, and, if you suppose he fur- 
nished the other democrats that went with him, he furnished three votes, 
while the republicans furnished twenty. That is what he did to defeat 
it. In the House of Representatives he and his friends furnished some 
twenty votes and the republicans ninety odd. Now who was it that 
did the work ? 

" A voice — ' Douglas.' 

" Mr. Lincoln — Why, yes, Douglas did it. To be sure he did. Let 
us, however, put that proposition another way. The republicans could 
not have done it without Judge Douglas. Could he have done it with- 
out them? Which could have come the nearest to doing it without 
the other?" 

The following point was so neatly made that it drew from 
the house three hearty cheers: 

" We were often — more than once at least — in the course of Judge 
Douglas' speech last night, reminded that this government was made 
for white men — that he believed it was made for white men. Well, that 
is putting it into a shape in which no one wants to deny it ; but the 
Judge then goes into his passion for drawing inferences that are not 
warranted. I protest, now and forever, against that counterfeit logic 
which presumes that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave, 
I do necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I need 
not have her for either, but, as God made us separate, we can leave one 
another alone, and do one another much good thereby. There are 
white men enough to marry all the white women, and enough black 
men to marry all the black women, and in God's name let them be so 
married. The Judge regales us with the terrible enormities that take 
place by the mixture of races ; that the inferior race bears the superior 
down. Why, Judge, if we do not let them get together in the territo- 
ries they won't mix there." 

And thus was opened the grand senatorial campaign of 
1858. Mr. Douglas had not been present at Mr. Lincoln's 



LIFE OT ABBATTATVf LINCOLN". 1.7 

speech, a fact which Mr. Lincoln regretted, and he soon took 
measures to secure his attendance. In the meantime, the 
campaign went on. Mr. Douglas spoke a week later at 
Bloomington, making much, as usual, of his doctrine of pop- 
ular sovereignty, and of his rebellion against the administra- • 
tion on the Lecompton question. Mr. Lincoln's original 
Springfield speech came in for comment, particularly the two 
points which he criticised at Chicago. Mr. Lincoln was 
present on this occasion also, determined to find out the exact 
ground of his antagonist, that he might he able to meet him 
in the struggle which he had determined upon. On the day 
following his Bloomington speech, Mr. Douglas spoke at 
Springfield, as did also Mr. Lincoln, though not at the same 
meeting. Mr. Lincoln, in opening his speech, alluded to the 
disadvantages which the republicans of the state labored 
under in the unjust apportionment of the legislative districts, 
and particularly in the disparity that existed between the 
reputation and prospects of the senatorial candidates of the 
two parties. All the anxious politicians of the party of Mr. 
Douglas had been looking upon him as certain, at no distant 
day, to be the President of the United States. "They have 
seen," he said, "in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post-offices, 
land-offices, marshalships and cabinet appointments, charge- 
ships and foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out, in 
wonderful luxuriance, ready to be laid hold of by their greedy 
hands. And as they have been gazing upon this attractive 
picture so long, they cannot, in the little distraction that has 
taken place in the party, bring themselves to give up the 
charming hope; but with greedier anxiety they rush about 
him, sustain him, and give him marches, triumphal entries 
and receptions, beyond what, even in the days of his highest 
prosperity, they could have brought about in his favor. On 
the contrary, nobody has ever expected me to be president. 
In my poor, lean, lank face nobody has ever seen that any 
cabbages were sprouting out." The main body of the speech 
was devoted to the questions at issue between him and Jud^e 
Douglas, and does not contain matter of special interest beyond 
12 



178 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

what lie had previously uttered upon the same points. He 
closed by reiterating the charge made in his speech of June 
seventeenth that Mr. Douglas was a party to the conspiracy 
for deceiving the people with the idea that the settlers of 
a territory could exclude slavery from their limits if they 
should choose to do so, and, at the same time, rendering it im- 
possible for them to do so through the standing veto of the 
Dred Scott decision. The charge was a grave one, but Mr. 
Douglas had ignored it. Since it was made, he had not 
alluded to it at all. " On his own tacit admission," said Mr. 
Lincoln, "I renew the charge." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Mr. Lincoln wanted closer work than Mr. Douglas had 
given him. lie desired to address the same audiences with 
his antagonist, and to show to those whom he addressed the 
fallacy of his reasoning and the groundlessness of his charges. 
Accordingly, on the twenty-fourth of July, he dispatched the 
following note : — 

"Hox. S. A. Douglas — My Dear Sir: Will it be agreeable to you 
to make an arrangement for you and myself to divide time, and address 
the same audiences the present canvass ? Mr. Judd, who will hand you 
this, is authorized to receive your answer; and, if agreeable to you, to 
enter into the terms of such arrangement. 

" Your obedient servant, A. Lixcolx." 

To this Mr. Douglas replied, stating that recent events had 
interposed difficulties in the way of such an arrangement. In 
connection with the State Central Committee at Springfield, 
he had made a series of appointments extending over nearly 
the whole period that remained before the election, and the 
people of the various localities had been notified of the times 
and places of the meetings. The candidates for Congress, the 
legislature and other offices would desire to speak at these 
meetings, and thus all the time would be occupied. Then he 
proceeded to give, as a further reason for his refusal, that it 
was intended to bring out another candidate for United States 
senator, to divide the democratic vote for the benefit of Mr. 
Lincoln, and that he (the third candidate) would also claim a 



180 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

chance in the joint debates, so that he (said third candidate) 
and Mr. Lincoln would have the opening and closing speech 
in every instance. While, therefore, he declined the general 
invitation, he declared himself ready to make an arrangement 
for seven joint debates in the congressional districts respect- 
ively where they had not already spoken, and at the follow- 
ing places, viz: Freeport, Ottawa, Galesburg, Qnincy, Alton, 
Jonesboro and Charleston. This letter was published in the 
Chicago Times, and read there by Mr. Lincoln before he re- 
ceived the autograph by mail. 

To this letter Mr. Lincoln responded, denying, of course, 
the foolish charge of intended unfairness in bringing in a third 
candidate to divide the time to the disadvantage of Mr. Doug- 
las, and agreeing to speak in the seven places mentioned. 
There is other matter in these letters* which thoroughly 
discovers the characteristics of the two writers, but it must be 
left behind. 

Mr. Douglas replied to this second letter of Mr. Lincoln, 
designating the time and places of the debate as they follow : 

Ottawa, LaSalle County, August 21st, 1S58; Freeport, Stephenson 
County, August 27th; Jonesboro, Union County, September 15th; 
Charleston, Coles County, September ISth ; Galesburg, Knox County, 
October 7th; Quincy, Adams County, October 13th; Alton, Madison 
County, October loth. 

The terms proposed in this letter and accepted in a subse- 
quent note by Mr. Lincoln, were, that at Ottawa, Mr. Doug- 
las should speak an hour, then Mr. Lincoln an hour and a 
half, Mr. Douglas having the closing speech of half an hour. 
At the next place, Mr. Lincoln should open and close in the 
same way, and so on, alternately, to the conclusion of the ar- 
rangement. 

As about three weeks intervened between the date of this 
agreement for joint debates and the first appointment, both 
parties engaged zealously in their independent work. Mr. 

* Political debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen 
A. Douglas, (Follett, Foster & Co.,) pages 64 and Co. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 181 

Lincoln began his canvass at Beardstown, the spot where, 
twenty-five years before, he had taken his military company 
for rendezvous before starting out for the Black Hawk war. 
After making a speech here, he went up the Illinois River to 
Havana and Bath in -Mason County, to Lewistown and Can- 
ton in Fulton County, and to Peoria and Henry in Marshall 
County, making speeches at each place, and attracting im- 
mense audiences. Mr. Douglas was equally busy, and equally 
fortunate in attracting the people to listen to his utterances 
upon the great questions of the day. At Clinton, in DeWitt 
County, he found it no longer possible to pass in silence the 
charge of Mr. Lincoln that he had "left a niche in the Ne- 
braska bill to receive the Dred Scott decision," which declared 
in effect, that a territorial legislature could not abolish slavery. 
Mr. Douglas here stated that his self-respect alone prevented 
him from calling this charge a falsehood. Subsequently, at 
Beardstown, he broke over his restraints, and called it " an 
infamous lie." To this Mr. Lincoln responded on a subse- 
quent occasion as follows : 

" I say to you, gentlemen, that it would be more to the purpose for 
Judge Douglas to say that he did not repeal the Missouri compromise; 
that he did not make slavery possible where it was impossible before ; 
that he did not leave a niche in the Nebraska bill for the Dred Scott 
decision to rest in ; that he did not vote down a clause giving the peo- 
ple the right to exclude slavery if they wanted to; that he did not refuse 
to give his individual opinion whether a territorial legislature could ex- 
clude slavery; that he did not make a report to the senate in which he 
said that the rights of the people in this regard were held in abeyance, 
and could not be immediately exercised; that he did not make a hasty 
indorsement of the Dred Scott decision over at Springfield ; that he 
does not now indorse that decision ; that that decision does not take 
away from the territorial legislature the power to exclude slavery; and 
that he did not in the original Nebraska bill so couple the words ' state' 
and ' territory ' together that what the Supreme Court has done in forcing 
open all the territories for slavery, it may yet do in forcing open all the 
states; — I say it would be vastly more to the point, for Judge Douglas 
to say he did not do some of these things, did not forge some of these 
links of overwhelming testimony, than to go to vociferating about the 
country that possibly he may be obbged to hint that somebody is a bar." 



182 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The first meeting of the series agreed upon was held at 
Ottawa according to appointment. A concourse of citizens 
estimated at twelve thousand had assembled. Mr. Douglas 
had the opening speech, and in this speech he resorted to an 
expedient for placing Mr. Lincoln on the defensive which was 
cither very weak, or very wicked. He made a charge against 
Mr. Lincoln which, if he knew it to be false, was foul, and 
which, if he did not knoAv to be true, w r as most impolitic. He 
charged that Mr. Lincoln, on the part of the whigs, and Mr. 
Trumbull, on the part of the democrats, entered into an ar- 
rangement in 1854, for the dissolution of the two parties, and 
the fusing of both in the republican party, for the purpose of 
giving Lincoln Shields' place in the Senate, and Trumbull, 
his (Douglas') own. Furthermore, that the parties met at 
Springfield in October of that year, and, in convention of their 
friends, laid down a platform of the principles upon which the 
new party was constructed. He then proceeded to read what 
he called "the most important and material resolutions of the 
abolition platform." What these resolutions were, will appear 
in Mr. Lincoln's replies to the questions which Mr. Douglas 
based upon them. His object in asking these questions was, 
as he said, in order that when he should " trot him (Lincoln) 
down " to lower Egypt (southern Illinois) he might put the 
same questions to him there. 

The hearty reception which the audience gave to the prin- 
ciples of this platform as he pronounced them, did not please 
Mr. Douglas. He wished to see whether they would " bear 
transplanting from Ottawa to Jonesboro." "I have a right," 
said Mi*. Douglas, "to an answer, for I quote from the plat- 
form of the republican party, made by himself (Lincoln) and 
others at the time that party was formed, and the bargain 
made by Mr. Lincoln to dissolve and kill the old whig party, 
and transfer its members, bound hand and foot, to the abolition 
party, under the direction of Giddings and Fred Douglass." 

Mr. Douglas went on then to comment on Mr. Lincoln's 
Springfield speech, which had come to be known as "the 
house-divided-against-itself speech," and slid, as usual, into 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 183 

his talk about the inferiority of the negro. Speaking of Mr. 
Lincoln and the " abolition orators," he said, " he and they 
maintain that negro equality is guarantied by the laws of 
God, and that it is asserted in the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. If they think so, of course they have a right to say so, 
and so vote. I do not question Mr. Lincoln's conscientious 
belief that the negro was made his equal, and, hence, his 
brother; but for my own part, I do not regard the negro as 
my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother, or any 
kin to me whatever." 

And here it may be said, because it will be impossible to 
describe with particularity all the speeches of the campaign, 
that the staple of the speeches of Mr. Douglas, as well as 
those of Mr. Lincoln, related to a very few points, which may 
be summed up in a brace of paragraphs. 

Mr. Douglas did not believe in natural negro equality, and 
did believe that every state had the right to say just what 
rights she would confer upon the negro ; that the people of 
every territory had a right to decide as to what their institu- 
tions should be, whil6 he bowed, at the same time, to the 
Drcd Scott decision, which declared that they had no right to 
abolish slavery ; and that the country could endure half slave 
and half free as well for all coming time as it had for the pre- 
vious eighty years, while slavery itself, to him, was a matter of 
indifference — an institution which might be "voted up or 
voted down," without any appeal to his preferences. 

On the other hand, Mr. Lincoln placed himself on the broad 
ground of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are 
created equal, and are by heaven endowed with certain 
inalienable rights, such as life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- 
piness. He recognized the negro as a man, coming within the 
broad sw r eep of this Declaration. He believed thoroughly in 
Mr. Douglas' doctrine of popular sovereignty, without the 
Dred Scott qualification, which was a direct denial of the 
sovereignty ; but he believed the abrogation of the Missouri 
compromise, which Mr. Douglas himself had effected, an un- 
speakable wrong, a foul breach of faith, by which it was ren- 



184 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tiered possible for the people of a territory to choose slavery, 
and by which the forcing of slavery upon them was rendered 
practicable. Furthermore, he saw in that " piece of machin- 
ery," made up of congressional legislation, Supreme Court 
decisions and executive and party connivance, an attempt to 
nationalize and perpetuate slavery, which he felt must logically 
ultimate in that result, or end in universal emancipation. 
Slavery, he believed, had lived by the side of freedom, and in 
partnership with it, simply because freedom had regarded 
itself as eternal, while it had regarded slavery as ephemeral. 
Thus the fathers regarded and treated slavery. They had 
curtailed its territory. They had forbidden the importation of 
slaves. All their arrangements looked to an early end of 
slavery ; and Mr. Lincoln quoted the champions of slavery to 
sustain his views on this point. "When the policy of the gov- 
ernment changed, and it was proposed to nationalize slavery 
and make it perpetual — to confer upon it the same rights with 
freedom — nay, to make it impossible for freedom to abolish 
it — then he foresaw a conflict which could only end by its 
utter overthrow, or its universal prevalence. He did not be- 
lieve the house would fall ; he did believe that it would cease 
to be divided. 

The seven joint debates rang their changes on these points, 
as they were held and maintained by the debaters. Mr. 
Douglas did not seem to be as fertile in thought and expres- 
sion as his antagonist. He was more given to diversions, to the 
ordinary clap-trap of campaign speaking, to appeals to preju- 
dices, to the springing of false issues, to quibbles and tricks. 
Mr. Lincoln, on the contrary, was in thorough earnest, and 
stuck with manly tenacity to the great questions he had in 
hand. He stripped every objectionable proposition and every 
specious argument of the disguises in which the ingenious 
lanrmao-e of Mr. Douglas had clothed them, and refused to 
be led away, by a hair's breadth, from the real, naked issues 
of the campaign. 

In replying to Judge Douglas at Ottawa, he simply said 
that the story of his bargain with Mr. Trumbull was not' 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 185 

true, and that ho was so far from having had anything to do 
with the convention to which the Senator had alluded that he 
was attending court, off in Tazewell County, when it was 
held. That was all there was of Mr. Douglas' charges. They 
had not an inch of truth to stand upon ; and it was discovered 
immediately after the debate that the resolutions which Mr. 
Douglas had quoted had not been passed in Springfield at all, 
by any convention, and that, although they had been uttered 
by a local convention in the town of Aurora, they were, for 
the purposes used, and under the circumstances, essentially a 
forgery, for which Mr. Douglas or his friends were guiltily 
responsible. The charge that Mr. Lincoln was in the conven- 
tion, that he made a bargain with Mr. Trumbull, that he was 
responsible for a certain set of anti-slavery resolutions, and 
that the resolutions which he read were passed by the conven- 
tion that was held at Springfield, was false in every particular. 
Did Mr. Douglas know it to be so ? Perhaps the only reply 
that it is proper to make to this question is that he ought to 
have known it to be so. 

In Mr. Lincoln's reply, he quoted from his Peoria speech 
made in 1854, to which allusion has been made in this history, 
to show his exact position on the subject of slavery in the 
states where it existed. He said in that speech that he had 
no prejudice against the southern people. They were just 
what Ave should be under their circumstances. " If slavery 
did not now exist among them, they would not introduce it. 
If it did now exist among us, we should not instantly give it 
up." He understood how difficult it was to get rid of slavery, 
and he did not blame them for not doing what he should not 
know how to do himself. He acknowledged his constitutional 
obligations, and went so far as to say that he would be willing 
to give them a law for reclaiming fugitives, provided a law 
could be made which would not be more likely to carry a free 
man into slavery than our ordinary criminal laws are to hang 
an innocent one. This, notwithstanding he hated slavery for 
the monstrous injustice of slavery itself, and for its disgrace to 
democratic institutions. But all these facts had no effect upon 



186 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

his mind when he came to consider the question of extending 
slavery over territory now free. There was no more excuse, 
in his opinion, for permitting slavery to go into free territory, 
than for reviving the African slave-trade by law. " The law 
which forbids the bringing a slave from Africa," said Mr. 
Lincoln, " and that which has so long forbidden the taking of 
them to Nebraska, can hardly be distinguished, on any moral 
principle." The principal point urged against Judge Douglas 
in this speech touched his devotion to Supreme Court decis- 
ions. A decision of this Court was to him a " Thus saith the 
Lord." There was no appeal from it; and the next decision 
of this same Court, whatever it might be, was indorsed in 
advance. It is simply for the Supreme Court to say that no 
state under the Constitution can exclude slavery, and he must 
bow to the decision, just as when it says no territory can thus 
exclude it. Mr. Lincoln closed his remarks on this point by 
an argumentum ad hominem, equally characteristic and clever : 

" The next decision, as much as this, will be a Thus saith the Lord. 
There is nothing that can divert or turn him away from this decision. 
It is nothing that I point out to him that his great prototype, General 
Jackson, did not believe in the binding force of decisions. It is nothing 
to him that Jefferson did not so believe. I have said that I have often 
heard him approve of Jackson's course in disregarding the decision of the 
Supreme Court pronouncing a national bank constitutional. He says 
I did not hear him say so He denies the accuracy of my recollection. 
I say he ought to know better than I, but I will make no question about 
this thing, though it still seems to me that I heard him say it twenty 
times. I will tell him though, ciiat he now claims to stand on the Cin- 
cinnati platform, which affirms that Congress cannot charter a national 
bank, in the teeth of that old standing decision that Congress can charter 
a bank. And I remind him of another piece of history on the question 
of respect for judicial decisions, and it is a piece of Illinois history, be- 
longing to a time when the large party to which Judge Douglas belonged 
were displeased with a decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois, be- 
cause they had decided that a Governor could not remove a Secretary 
of State. You will find the whole story in Ford's History of Illinois; 
and I know that Judge Douglas will not deny that he was then in favor 
of overslaughing that decision by the mode of adding five new Judges, 
so as to vote down the four old ones. Not only so, but it ended in the 
Judge's sitting down on that very bench as one of the fire new Judgesto break 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 187 

doion (he four old ones. It was in this way precisely that he got his title 
of Judge. Now, when the Judge tells me thai men appointed condi- 
tionally to sit as members of a court, will have to be catechised before- 
hand upon some subject, 1 say,'You know, Judge; you have tried it.' 
When he says a court of this kind will lose the confidence of all men, 
will In' prostituted and disgraced by such a proceeding, I say, 'You know 
best, Judge; you have been through the mill.' But I cannot shake 
Judge Douglas' teeth loose from the Dred Scott decision. Like some 
obstinate animal (1 mean no disrespect,) that will hang on when he has 
once gut his teeth fixed; you may ctit off a leg, or you may tear away 
an arm, still he will not relax his hold. And so I may point out to 
the Judge, and say that he is bespattered all over, from the beginning 
of his political life to the present time, with attacks upon judicial decis- 
ions — I may cut off limb after limb of his public record, and strive to 
wrench him from a single dictum of the court — yet I cannot divert him 
from it. lie hangs, to the last, to the Dred Scott decision. These 
things show there is a purpose strong as death and eternity for which he 
adheres to this decision, and for which he will adhere to all other decis- 
ions of the same court." 

At the close of the half hour which Mr. Douglas employed 
in his reply to Mr. Lincoln, the latter Avas literally borne 
away upon the shoulders of his friends, in a frenzy of enthu- 
siasm, a fact to which Mr. Douglas made playful allusion a 
feAv days afterwards, in the statement that Mr. Lincoln was 
so much frightened that he had to be taken from the stand, 
and was laid up for seven days. Mr. Lincoln was too simple, 
too much in earnest, and too sensitive, to take this badinage 
gracefully. He really supposed there might be persons who 
would believe it, as appeared in a subsequent speech, in which 
he made it a matter of complaint. 

At the Freeport meeting, Mr. Lincoln had the opening 
speech, and commenced by answering the interrogatories which 
Mr. Douglas had addressed to him at Ottawa, based upon the 
declarations of the Aurora resolutions. Mr. Douglas asked 
him if he stood pledged now to the same details of policy that 
he did in 1854 — details which he drew from the resolutions 
he had read ; and to his questions Mr. Lincoln made these 
replies, seriatim : that he was not then, and never had been 
pledged to the unconditional repeal of the fugitive slave law ; 



188 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLX. 

that lie was not then, and had never been, pledged against the 
admission of any more slave states ; that he did not stand 
pledged against the admission of a new state into the Union 
with such a constitution as the people of that state may see 
fit to make ; that he did not stand pledged to the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia ; that he did not stand 
pledged to the prohibition of the slave trade between the dif- 
ferent states ; and that he teas pledged to a belief in the right 
and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United 
States territories. After saying that he had replied in terms 
to the Judge, and that he was not " pledged " to any of these 
principles or measures, he further said that he would not hang 
upon the form of the questions, but utter what he did think 
on all the subjects involved in them. He believed the southern 
people wero entitled, under the Constitution, to a congressional 
fugitive slave law ; said that he should be very sorry to see 
any more slave states applying for admission to the Union, 
and declared that he would not only be glad to see slavery 
abolished in the District of Columbia, but he believed that 
Congress had the constitutional power to abolish it there. 
Having answered Mr. Douglas' questions — these and the re- 
mainder — in accordance with opinions with which the reader 
is already familiar, he was ready to turn questioner, and give 
the Judge something to do, in the same line of effort. He 
had already consulted with his friends concerning the matter, 
and, in his conversation on the subject, had dropped an ex- 
pression which showed that he was looking beyond the sena- 
torial contest for the grand results of the discussion. In Mr. 
Lincoln's view the principal point of debate was Mr. Douglas' 
doctrine of popular sovereignty, in connection with the Dred 
Scott decision — the two things in his judgment being in direct 
antagonism, and being, in reality, a shameful fraud. This an- 
tagonism Mr. Lincoln proposed to present in the form of inter- 
rogatories, but his friends remonstrated. " If you put that 
question to him," they said, " he will perceive that an answer, 
giving practical force and effect to the Dred Scott decision in 
the territories-, inevitably loses him the battle ; and he will 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 189 

therefore reply by offering the decision as an abstract princi- 
ple, bnt denying its practical application." "But," said Mr. 
Lincoln, " it* he does that, he can never be President." His 
friends replied, " that is not your lookout ; you are after the 
senatorship." " No, gentlemen," said he, " I am killing larger 
game. The battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this."* 

Whether Mr. Lincoln then expected to be the republican 
candidate for the presidency in 1860, there are no means of 
judging; but that he intended the discussion to damage Mr. 
Douglas' presidential prospects there is no doubt. So Mr. 
Lincoln put his questions, which, in their order, were as they 
follow : 

"1. If the people of Kansas shall, by means entirely unobjectionable 
in all other respects, adopt a state constitution, and ask admission into 
the Union under it, before they have the requisite number of inhabit- 
ants according to the English bill — some ninety-three thousand — will 
you pote to admit them? 

"2. Can the people of a United States territory, in any lawful way, 
against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery 
from its limits prior to the formation of a state constitution ? 

"3. If the Supreme Court of the United States shall decide that 
states cannot exclude slavery from their limits, are you in favor of 
acquiescing in, adopting and following such decision, as a rule of po- 
litical action? 

"4. Are you in favor of acquiring additional territory, in disregard 
of how such acquisition may affect the nation on the slavery question?" 

To the first question Mr. Douglas replied that he held it a 
sound rule, of universal application, to require a territory to 
contain the requisite population for a member of Congress, 
before it is admitted as a state into the Union; but it having 
been decided by Congress that Kansas had population enough 
for a slave state, he held that she had enough for a free state. 
His answer to the second question was in brief, this: "It 
matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter de- 
cide, as to the abstract question whether slavery may or may 
not go into a territory under the Constitution, the people have 

* Scripps, p. 28. 



190 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the lawful means to introduce it, or exclude it as they please, 
for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day, or an hour, 
anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations. 
Those police regulations can only be established by the local 
legislature; and if the people are opposed to slavery, they 
will elect representatives to that body who will, by unfriendly 
legislation, effectually prevent the introduction of it into their 
midst." The third question he answered by stating that a 
decision of the Supreme Court that states could not exclude 
slavery from their limits, would "be an act of moral treason 
that no man on the bench would ever descend to." The thing 
in his view was simply impossible. This left the real question 
unanswered. Mr. Lincoln had not asked him whether the 
Supreme Court would or could make such a decision, but had 
inquired what he would do in the event that it should. To 
the fourth interrogatory he replied, "Whenever it becomes 
necessary, in our growth and progress, to acquire more terri- 
tory, I am in favor of it, without reference to the question of 
slavery ; and when Ave have acquired it I will leave the people 
free to do as they please — either to make it slave or free terri- 
tory as they prefer." 

To the answer to the second question Mr. Lincoln re- 
sponded by charging Mr. Douglas with changing his ground ; 
and referred to the record to prove his charge. He referred 
to the inquiry made by Judge Trumbull of Judge Douglas in 
the United States Senate, on this very point, when the former 
asked the latter whether the people of a territory had the 
lawful power to exclude slavery, prior to the formation of a 
constitution. The Judge's reply then was that it was a ques- 
tion to be decided by the Supreme Court. The question has 
been decided by the Supreme Court, and now the Judge, by 
saying that the people can exclude slavery if they choose, 
virtually says that it is not a question for the Supreme Court 
but a question for the people. The proposition that " slavery 
cannot exist a day or an hour without local police regulations " 
is historically false, even in the case of Dred Scott himself, 
who was held in Minnesota territory not only without police 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 101 

regulations, but in the teeth of Congressional legislation, sup- 
posed to be valid at the time. The absurdity of adhering to 
the Drcd Scott decision and maintaining popular sovereignty 
at the same time, he put into a single sentence in a subsequent 

speech, made in Ohio — a sentence which contained the whole 
argument. It was declaring, he said, "no less than that a 
thing may lawfully be driven away from a place where it has 
a lawful right to be." 

It is impossible to follow to their conclusion this series of 
debates in the pages of this volume. Enough has been writ- 
ten to reveal the ground of the two antagonists, the merits 
of the questions they discussed and their modes of conducting 
debate. Into the side questions which sprang up on every 
fresh occasion, and which were connected with persons and 
local politics, it is not possible, and, perhaps, not desirable, to 
follow the debaters. They kept their appointments, and ful- 
filled the terms of their arrangement. They attracted to 
them immense crowds, wherever they appeared; and the 
whole nation looked on with an intense interest. There has 
never been a local canvass since the formation of the govern- 
ment which so attracted the attention of the politicians of 
other states as this. It was the key note of the coming pres- 
idential campaign. It was a thorough presentation of the 
issues upon which the next national battle was to be fought. 
The eyes of all the eastern states were turned to the west 
where young republicanism and old democracy were estab- 
lishing the dividing lines of the two parties, and preparing 
the ground for the great struggle soon to be begun. 

To say that Mr. Lincoln was the victor in this contest, mor- 
ally and intellectually, is simply to record the judgment of the 
world. To say that he was victor in every way before the 
people of Illinois, it needs only to be recorded that he received 
a majority in the popular vote over Mr. Douglas of four 
thousand eighty-five. There is this to be said, however, in 
connection with these statements. Whatever the advantages 
of Mr. Douglas may have been, Mr. Lincoln had the great 
advantage of belonging to a new and aggressive party, which 



192 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

had started freshly in the strife for power, and had not been 
corrupted by power. It had not lived long enough to depart 
from the principles of truth and justice in which it had its 
birth. Standing on the ground that slavery was wrong and 
that its perpetuation would be a calamity, and its diffusion 
through new territory a crime, Mr. Lincoln not only felt, 
but knew, that he was right. This made him strong. Mr. 
Douglas was looking for the presidency, and knew that if he 
should ever reach and grasp the prize before him, he must do 
it through the aid of the slaveholding states. He knew that 
he could only secure this support by a certain degree of 
friendliness, or an entire indifference, to slavery. He intended 
to ride into power on the back of popular sovereignty, giving 
at least nominal equality to slavery and freedom in the terri- 
tories, while, at the same time, endorsing the decision of the 
Supreme Court as to what the exact rights of slavery were, 
under the Constitution. His policy was not only that of the 
democratic party of Illinois, but essentially that of the whole 
North. He boasted of this on one occasion, upon which Mr. 
Lincoln retorted the charge of sectionalism. Mr. Douglas 
had been obliged to defer so much to the spirit of freedom 
and to the rights of free labor in the territories — had been 
obliged for fear of defeat to go so far from the original path 
he had marked out for himself— that Mr. Lincoln called his 
attention to the fact that his speeches would not pass current 
south of the Ohio so readily as they had formerly done. 
"Whatever maybe the result of this ephemeral contest be- 
tween Judge Douglas and myself," said he, " I see the day 
rapidly approaching when his pill of ' sectionalism,' which he 
has been thrusting down the throats of republicans for years 
past, will be crowded down his own throat." It was undoubt- 
edly the grand aim of Mr. Lincoln, throughout the whole 
series of debates, to drive Mr. Douglas into such an open 
declaration for slavery as to secure his defeat for the senatorial 
office, or, failing in that, to compel him to such declarations 
on behalf of freedom as would spoil him as a southern candi- 
date for the presidency. "The battle of 1860 is worth a 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 193 

hundred of this," Mr. Lincoln had said to his friends before 
the Freeport debate. He saw further than they. He was 
"killing larger game'' than the senatorship, and he certainly 
did kill, or assist in killing, Judge Douglas, as a southern 
candidate for the presidency. 

These debates of these two champions, respectively of the 
principles of the Declaration of Independence and of party 
policy, were published entire as a campaign document in the 
republican interest, when Mr. Lincoln was nominated for the 
presidency, without a word of comment, the people being left 
to form their own conclusions as to the merits of the contro- 
versy, and the relative ability of the men whom it represented. 

It is in vain to look for any better presentation of the prin- 
ciples of the republican party, or a better definition of the 
issues which divided it from the democratic party of the time, 
than are to be found in these speeches of Mr. Lincoln. They 
cover the whole ground. They are clear, sound, logical, pow- 
erful and exhaustive; and, in connection with two or three 
speeches made afterwards in Ohio and New York, form the 
chief material on which his reputation as an oi'ator and a de- 
bater must rest. The man who shall write the story of the 
great rebellion on behalf of human slavery must go back to 
these masterly speeches of an Illinois lawyer to find the clear- 
est and most complete statement of those differences between 
the power of slavery and the spirit of freedom — the policy of 
slavery and the policy of freedom — which ended, after expend- 
itures of uncounted treasure and unmeasured blood, in the 
final overthrow of the accursed institution. 

Mr. Lincoln was beaten in his contest for the seat of Mr. 
Douglas in the Senate, in consequence of the unfair appor- 
tionment of the legislative districts. When it came to a bal- 
lot in the legislature, it was found that there were fourteen 
democrats to eleven republicans in the Senate, and forty dem- 
ocrats to thirty-five republicans in the House. This re-instated 
Mr. Douglas ; and the champion of the republican party was 
defeated after a contest fought by him with wonderful power 
and persistence, with unfailing fairness, good nature and mag- 
13 



L94 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

nanimity, and with a skill rarely if ever surpassed. He had 
visited every part of the state, made about sixty speeches, 
been received by the people everywhere with unbounded en- 
thusiasm, had grown strong with every day's exercise, was 
conscious that he had worsted his antagonist in the intellectual 
struggle, and, when defeat came, he could not have been oth- 
erwise than disappointed. On being asked by a friend how 
he felt when the returns came in that insured Lis defeat, he 
replied that he felt, he supposed, very much like the stripling 
who had bruised his toe — " too badly to laugh and too big to 
cry." But the battle of 1860 was indeed worth a hundred of 
that, and to it, events will swiftly lead us. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

The winter of 1858 and 1859 found Mr. Lincoln tit leisure. 
His absorption in political pursuits had materially interfered 
with his professional business, although he retained all that he 
had the disposition to attend to. At this point occurred one 
of those strange diversions that were so characteristic of the 
man. He sat down and wrote, in the form of a lecture, a 
comprehensive history of inventions, beginning with the 
handiwork in brass and iron of Tubal Cain, and ending with 
the latest products of inventive art. This lecture he delivered 
at Springfield, and, in a single instance, in another city, but 
there the public delivery of it ceased. Whether he undertook 
this to detach his mind from subjects which had held it so 
long, or whether he did it to be able to meet the invitations 
that came to him from many quarters to address the winter 
lyceums, does not appear. The effort does not seem to have 
been a satisfactory one to himself, and it is easy to see that it 
was not likely to be particularly attractive to the lecture-going 
public. Reading lectures and delivering stump speeches are 
very different styles of effort ; and the most effective political 
orators often surprise themselves as much as they do their aud- 
iences by their dryness and dreariness upon the platform of 
the lecturer. The facts of the matter are principally interest- 
ing as showing the natural drift of Mr. Lincoln's mind when 
diverted from professional and political pursuits. 

This diversion was only temporary. Mr.' Lincoln had be- 
come a political man. Whatever may have been his inclina- 



196 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tions at this time, he felt that he was in the hands of the party 
to which he had just given the ripest and best efforts of his 
life. He was a representative man, and was already regarded 
by the great masses of the new party at the West as their 
best man for the next presidential campaign. His senatorial 
contest had done much to make his name known to the poli- 
ticians of the nation. Political men everywhere had read his 
masterly debates with Senator Douglas, and had given him his 
position among the best politicians and most notable political 
orators of the time. While this is true, it is also true that 
east of the Alleghanies he was not much known among the 
people. He had not been much in public office ; and his field 
of action and influence was so distant that they had heard but 
little about him. If they had been told that within two years 
Abraham Lincoln would be elected president of the United 
States, three out of every four would have inquired who 
Abraham Lincoln was. At the West all was different. Ev- 
erybody knew "Old Abe." He was the people's friend — 
the man of the people — the champion of freedom and free 
labor — the man who had beaten the "little giant" in the pop- 
ular vote of the democratic state .of Illinois. His peculiari- 
ties were as well known to the people of the West as if he 
had been the member of every man's family. To look upon 
him was to look upon a lion. To shake hands with him or to 
hear him speak, was a great privilege — a subject of self-grat- 
ulation or neighborly boasting. 

On the 17th of May, 1859, we find Mr. Lincoln answering 
a letter addressed to him by Dr. Theodor Canisius, a Ger- 
man citizen of Illinois, who, with an eye to the future, inquired 
concerning Mr. Lincoln's views of the constitutional provision 
recently adopted in Massachusetts, in relation to naturalized 
citizens, and whether he opposed or favored a fusion of the 
republicans and other opposition elements in the approaching 
campaign of 1860. Mr. Lincoln replied that, while he had 
no right to advise the sovereign and independent state of 
Massachusetts, concerning her policy, he would say that so 
far as he understood the provision she had consummated, he 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 197 

was against its adoption in Illinois, and in every other place 
where he had aright to oppose it. "As I understand the 

spirit of our institutions," said Mr. Lincoln, "it is designed 
to promote the elevation of men. I am, therefore, hostile to 
anything that tends to their debasement. It is well known 
that I deplore the depressed condition of the blacks, and it 
would, therefore, be very inconsistent for me to look with 
approval upon any measure that infringes upon the inalienable 
rights of white men, whether or not they are born in another 
land, or speak a different language from our own." As to 
the inquiry touching the fusion of all the opposition elements, 
he was in favor of it, if it could be done on republican princi- 
ples, and upon no other condition. "A fusion upon any other 
platform," the letter proceeds, " would be as insane as unprin- 
cipled. It would thereby lose the whole North, while the 
common enemy would still have the support of the entire 
South. The question in relation to men is different. There 
are good and patriotic men and able statesmen in the South 
whom I would willingly support, if they would place them- 
selves on republican ground ; but I shall oppose the lowering 
of the republican standard even by a hair's breadth." 

It is to be remembered in this connection that Massachusetts 
was a representative republican state, and, regarding the igno- 
rant foreign population, particularly of the eastern states, as 
holding the balance of power between the democratic and 
republican parties, which it never failed to exercise in the in- 
terest of the former and in the support of African slavery, had 
instituted measures which rendered naturalization a more 
difficult process. This embarrassed the republicans of the 
"West, who were associated with a large and generally intelli- 
gent German population, with leanings toward the republican 
party rather than to the democratic. Hence this letter to Mr. 
Lincoln and his reply, which latter undoubtedly had its office 
in shaping public opinion, and in bringing the foreign popula- 
tion of the West into hearty sympathy with Mr. Lincoln 
himself. 

It was during this year that the movement for making Mr. 



198 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Lincoln the republican candidate for the presidency took form. 
He was present as a spectator at the Illinois state republican 
convention held at Decatur on the tenth of May. When he 
entered the hall, he was greeted with such enthusiasm as few 
defeated men are favored with. There was no mistaking- the 
hi cell honor and warm affection in which the audience held 
him, and no doubting the fact that they regarded that which 
was nominally his defeat as a great triumph, whose fruits 
would not long be delayed. He had hardly taken his seat 
when Governor Oglesby of Decatur announced that an old 
/ democrat of Macon County desired to make a contribution to 
the convention. The offer being at once accepted, two old 
fence-rails were borne into the convention, gaudily decorated, 
and bearing the' inscription: "Abraham Lincoln, the rail 
candidate for the presidency in 1860. Two rails from a 
lot of three thousand, made in 1830, by Thomas Hanks and 
Abe Lincoln — whose father was the first pioneer of Macon 
County." 

The effect of this upon an audience already excited can be 
imagined by those only who have been familiar with the effect 
of similar melo-dramatic incidents under similar circumstan- 
ces. The cheers were prolonged for fifteen minutes, or until 
the strength of the enthusiastic assembly was exhausted. 
Mr. Lincoln was called upon to explain the matter of the 
rails, which he did, repeating the story already in the reader's 
possession — the story of his first work in Illinois, when he 
helped to build a cabin for his father, and to fence in a field 
of corn. 

It is the misfortune of great men who are candidates for 
office, that appeals must be made by them, or on their behalf, 
to the groundlings. j^ was a <r rea + misfortune to Mr. Lincoln 
that he Avas introduced to the nation as pre-eminently a rail- 
splitter, and that it was deemed necessary to his political for- 
tunes that he should be called such. There is no question 
that the designation belittled him in the eyes of all people of 
education and culture, at home and abroad. And this, not 
because there was any prejudice among these people against 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 199 

labor, and not because they attached the slightest dishonor to 
Mr. Lincoln on account of his early poverty and humble pur- 
suits. Splitting rails was in no way allied to the duties of the 
presidency. The ability to split rails did not add to moral or 
intellectual power. The fact that Mr. Lincoln had split rails 
did not increase his qualifications for office. Mr. Lincoln 
himself regretted that, while he was splitting these rails, he 
had not been in school or college. He felt that he should 
have been very much better fitted for the great duties that 
had been devolved upon him if, instead having devoted the 
best of his youth to splitting rails and other manual labor, he 
had enjoyed the advantages of a thorough education. The 
country took Mr. Lincoln at the estimate of his friends ; and 
those friends thrust him before the country as a man whose 
grand achievement was the splitting of many rails. It took 
years for the country to learn that Mr. Lincoln was not a 
boor. It took years for them to unlearn what an unwise and 
boyish introduction of a great man to the public had taught 
them. It took years for them to comprehend the fact that 
in Mr. Lincoln the country had the wisest, truest, gentlest, 
noblest, most sagacious president who had occupied the chair 
of state since Washington retired from it. At this very period 
he said to Judge Drummond of Chicago, who had remarked 
to him that people were talking of him for the presidency : " It 
seems as if they ought to find somebody who knows more 
than I do." The rails and that which they symbolized were 
what troubled him, and, in his own judgment, detracted from 
his qualifications for the high office. 

The latter part of 1859 and the first months of 18G0 were 
broken by travel through various portions of the country, 
during which he delivered some of the best and most elaborate 
speeches of his life. He visited Kansas, and was received by 
her people with the honor due to one who had done brave 
battle for her freedom. On entering Leavenworth, although 
the weather was most inclement, he was met by a large pro- 
cession of people, and escorted to his hotel, while a dense 
crowd gathered upon the sidewalks that lined the passage. 



;200 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

All tlio doors, windows, balconies and porticos were filled with 
men, women and children, anxious to catch a glimpse of the 
man whose speeches they had read, and of whom they had 
heard so much. The Leavenworth Register, in its notice of 
the occasion, said: — "never did man receive such honors at 
the hands of our people, and never did our people pay honors 
to a better man, or one who has been a truer friend of Kan- 
sas." Here he made a speech, and the following paragraph, 
selected from it, will show the state of political feeling at the 
time, and Mr. Lincoln's relation to it : 

"But you democrats are for the Union; and you greatly fear the 
success of the republicans would destroy the Union. Why? Do the 
republicans declare against the Union? Nothing like it. Your own 
statement of it is that if the .black republicans elect a president, you 
' wont stand it,' You will break up the Union. That will be your act, 
not ours. To justify it, you must show that our policy gives you just 
cause for such desperate action. Can you do that V When you attempt 
it, you will find that our policy is exactly the policy of the men who 
made the Union— nothing more, nothing less. Do you really think you 
are justified to break up the government rather than have it adminis- 
tered as it was by Washington V If you do, you are very unreasonable, 
and more reasonable men cannot and will not submit to you. While 
you elect presidents, we submit, neither breaking nor attempting to 
break up the Union. If we shall constitutionally elect a president, it 
will be our duty to see that you also submit. Old John Brown has 
been executed for treason against a state. We cannot object, even 
though he agreed with us in thinking slavery wrong. That cannot ex- 
cuse violence, bloodshed and treason. It could avail him nothing that 
he might think himself right. So, it we constitutionally elect a presi- 
dent, and, therefore, you undertake to destroy the Union, it will be our 
duty to deal with you as old John Brown has been dealt with. We 
shall try to do our duty. We hope and believe that in no section will a 
majority so act as to render such extreme measures necessary." 

In September, Mr. Lincoln paid a visit to Ohio, following 
Mr. Douglas, and made two speeches, one at Columbus and 
another at Cincinnati. These were the first occasions on 
which he had ever had the privilege of speaking to Ohio aud- 
iences, and the introductions to these speeches betrayed his 
diffidence. In Illinois the people knew and understood him. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 201 

lie had won a reputation there, but, as he traveled eastward, 
lie felt himself away from home. The names of Chase, Cor- 
win and Wade were in his mind — eminent speakers, with 
whose voices the people of Ohio were familiar — and he felt 
that it would be difficult for him to establish his position as a 
political orator when brought into close comparison with them. 
His style of speech and mode of reasoning he knew to be his 
own; and he had misgivings touching their reception among 
those whose ideas of oratory were derived from other model-. 
But these misgivings were groundless. His plainness, clear- 
ness, earnestness and thorough comprehension of the merits 
of his subject secured for him the honest admiration and 
esteem of all who heard him. 

At Columbus, he devoted himself mainly to the discussion 
of a few points of an elaborate article that had previously ap- 
peared in Harper's Magazine, from the pen of Judge Douglas. 
In this article, the Senator had contrived to spread throughout 
the country his views touching the relations of slavery to the 
Constitution. It was the old talk of the senatorial campaign 
repeated with unimportant variations, though with some new 
illustrations. It was familiar ground with Mr. Lincoln ; and, 
while his speech was a new one, it would convey but few new 
ideas to those who had read his speeches of the previous au- 
tumn. Mr. Douglas had preceded him at Cincinnati, and 
had alluded to him there. It Avas the battle of Illinois re- 
peated upon the soil of Ohio. The contestants were the 
same — the cruestions upon which they took issue were the 
same. Popular sovereignty, the Dred Scott decision, the right 
and wrong of slavery, negro equality, the nationalization of 
slavery — these subjects, presented and illustrated in every pos- 
sible way already, w T ere again made the themes of discussion 
by these two men ; and the people of Ohio gave them abund- 
ant audience. One of Mr. Lincoln's most effective points at 
Cincinnati was made upon the assumption that, being near 
the Kentucky border, some Kentuckians were present, to 
whom he addressed himself in an attempt to prove that they 
ought to nominate Judge Douglas at Charleston, as peculiarly 



202 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the southern candidate for the presidency. He told them that 
Judo-e Douglas was the only man in the whole nation who 
gave them any hold of the free states; and then he proceeded 
to show that Mr. Douglas was as sincerely, and quite as wisely, 
for them, as they were for themselves. The points made 
in this part of the speech against his old antagonist were 
very ingenious and very damaging, so far as they related 
to his standing in Ohio, whatever effect they may have had 
upon the possible Kentuckians in the audience. After telling 
them that they must take Douglas under any circumstances 
or be defeated, and that it was possible, if they did take 
him, that they might be beaten, he told them what the oppo- 
sition proposed to do with them in case it should be successful 
in the approaching presidential contest. The passage is worth 
quoting, as it is an embodiment of the policy he subsequently 
pursued when, the opposition having succeeded, he found 
himself endowed with the responsibilities of office, as well 
as a prophecy of the result of a collision then conditionally 
proposed. 

" I will tell you, so far as I am authorized to speak for the opposition, 
■what we mean to do with you. We mean to treat you, as near as 
we possibly can, as Washington, Jefferson and Madison treated you. 
We mean to leave you alone, and in no way to interfere with your in- 
stitution; to abide by all and every compromise, of the Constitution, 
and, in a word, coming back to the original proposition, to treat you, so 
far as degenerated men (if we have degenerated) may, according to the 
examples of those noble fathers — AVashington, Jefferson and Madison. 
We mean to remember that you are as good as we ; that there is no 
difference between us other than the difference of circumstances. We 
mean to recognize and bear in mind always that you have as good 
hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to have, and 
treat you accordingly. We mean to marry your girls when we have a 
chance — the white ones I mean — and I have the honor to inform you that 
I once did have a chance in that way. 

"I have told you what we mean to do. I want to know, now, when 
that thing takes place, what you mean to do. I often hear it intimated 
that you mean to divide the Union whenever a republican or anything 
like it is elected president of the United States. [A voice — ' That is 
so.'] 'That is so,' one of them says; I wonder if he is a Kentuckian? 



LIFE OF A.BRAHAM LINCOLN". 203 

[A voice—' Ho is a Douglas man.'] Well, then, I want to know what 
you are going to do with your half of it? Are you going to split the 
Ohio down through, and push your half off a piece? Or are you going 
to keep it right alongside of us outrageous fellows? Or are you going 
to build up a wall some way between your country and ours, by which 
that movable property of yours can 't conic over here any more, to the 
danger of your losing it? Do you think you can better yourselves on 
that subject, by leaving us here under no obligation whatever to return 
those specimens of your movable property that come hither? You have 
divided the Union because we would not do right with you, as you 
think, upon that subject; when we cease to be under obligations to do 
anything for you, how much better off do you think you will be? "Will 
you make war upon us and kill us ;ill ? Why, gentlemen, I think you 
are as gallant and as brave men as live ; that you can fight as bravely in 
a good cause, man for man, as any other people living; that you have 
shown yourselves capable of this upon various occasions; but man for 
man, you are not better than we are, and there are not so many of you 
as there are of us. You will never make much of a hand at whipping us. 
If we were fewer in numbers than you, I think that you could whip us; 
if we were equal it would likely be a drawn battle ; but being inferior 
in numbers, you will make nothing by attempting to master us." 

It is proper to say of Mr. Lincoln and Judge Douglas that 
no two men in the nation better apprehended the real nature 
of the struggle between the North and South than they. Mr. 
Douglas, so far back as the date of the abrogation of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, foresaw the coming conflict, and by that 
measure attempted to avert it. His bringing forward that 
measure at a time when the South did not demand it, could 
have been from no motive other than his wish to provide 
ground upon which the northern and southern democracy 
could stand together, in the presidential contest of 1860, when 
it was his expectation to be their candidate. Slavery was 
becoming discontented under the conviction that it was about 
to lose its power. It found itself either legally or practically 
shut out of the national domain. It is not at all improbable 
that the Senator knew something of the intrigues of those 
who were bent on disunion. It was then that he invented 
"popular sovereignty'' — what he was accustomed to call his 
" great principle " — and there was indeed nothing foolish in the 



204 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tenacity with which he clung to it. It was his only ground 
of hope for election to the presidency. He had no personal 
responsibility for the Dred Scott decision. It was not for him 
to say what the rights of slavery were among the people of 
a territory; but he was willing to take the responsibility of 
giving slavery and freedom the same rights. There was great 
plausibility in his view, and he had little difficulty in car- 
rying his party with him. It was a sort of neutral ground — 
speciously it was catholic ground. His intention was to give 
slavery a chance to enter territory then free, — territory forever 
set apart to freedom. If he did not intend to give this chance, 
his movement was without motive. On this chance, he in- 
tended, without doubt, to build up a claim upon southern 
support ; but he had a heavy load to carry, as events proved. 
Mr. Lincoln was a thorn in his side. If he spoke in Illinois, 
Mr. Lincoln challenged him to debate, and exposed his falla- 
cies. If he went to Ohio, Mr. Lincoln followed close upon 
his heels. If he betook himself to a New York publication, 
Mr. Lincoln took measures practically to meet him there. 

Mr. Lincoln's opportunity to meet his antagonist in the 
press of New York came through an invitation to speak in 
Brooklyn, at Mr. Beecher's church. This speech, which it was 
finally concluded should be delivered at the Cooper Institute, 
in New York, was by many regarded as the best he ever 
made. It was the last elaborate speech of his life, and was 
spread broadcast over the country by the press of the city. 

Mr. Lincoln arrived in the great metropolis on the 25th of 
February, 1860. He expected, as has been stated, to speak 
at Mr. Beecher's church in Brooklyn, and had prepared his 
address with some reference to the place. On learning that 
he was expected to speak in New York, he said he must re- 
view his speech. He reached the Astor House on Saturday, 
and spent the whole day in making such modifications of his 
manuscript as seemed necessary, under the change of circum- 
stances. On Sunday, he attended upon Mr. Beecher's preach- 
ing, and seemed to take great satisfaction in the services. 
When waited upon on Monday, by representative members 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 205 

of the Republican Club, under whose auspices he was to ap- 
pear, he was Pound encased in a new and badly wrinkled suit 
of black, which had evidently .-pent too much time in a small 
valise. He talked freely of the unbecoming dress, and, like a 
boy, expressed his surprise at finding himself in the great city. 
On being applied to for slips containing the speech of the eve- 
ning, he shoved that he was not familiar with the habit of 
eastern speakers of supplying such slips to the press in ad- 
vance, and even expressed the doubt whether any of the papers 
would care to publish it entire. During the interview, he 
referred frequently to Mr. Douglas, and in so kind and cor- 
dial a manner that it was impossible to regard him as that 
gentleman's personal enemy in any sense.* 

Being at leisure during the day, he accepted an invitation 
to ride about the city. Some of the more important streets 
were passed through, and a number of large establishments 
visited. At one place, he met an old acquaintance from Illi- 
nois, whom he addressed with an inquiry as to how he had 
fared since leaving the AVest. "I have made a hundred thou- 
sand dollars, and lost all," was his reply. Then turning ques- 
tioner he said: "How is it with you, Mr. Lincoln?" "Oh 
very well," said he; "I have the cottage at Springfield, and 
about eight thousand dollars in money. If they make me 
vice-president with Seward, as some say they will, I hope I 
shall be able to increase it to twenty thousand; and that is as 
much as any man ought to want." 

In a photographic establishment on Broadway, he met and 
was introduced to George Bancroft, the historian. The con- 
trast which he presented in his person and manner to this 
gentleman was certainly not to his advantage ; but his bluff, 
hearty way carried all before it. He informed Mr. Bancroft 
that he was on his way to Massachusetts where he had a son 
in college, who, if report were true, already knew much more 
than his father. 

He was to speak at Cooper Institute that night, and having 
caught a glimpse of the great capital and of its gigantic in- 

*E. C. McCormick, in the New York Evening Post. 



206 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

terests and affairs, it is not strange that he should have been 
oppressed with a sense of his own insignificance. It was one 
of his peculiarities that, while he was the subject of the most 
exalted aspirations and ambitions, and the ready undertaker 
of the highest and most difficult tasks, he always bore about 
with him a sense of his imperfections, and experienced a sort 
of surprise at every success. Indeed, his triumphs became 
the subjects of his study. They really puzzled him; and 
frequent conversations with others betrayed his desire to find 
the secrets of his own power. 

But Mr. Lincoln was not more curious concerning himself, or 
concerning the new scenes among which he found himself, than 
the people of New York were concerning him. There was 
a great and general curiosity to see and hear him; and when 
he entered the hall he found the platform covered with the 
republican leaders of the city, and of Brooklyn, and, in his 
audience, many ladies. The venerable William Cullen Bryant 
presided, and in introducing the speaker said: "It is a grate- 
ful office that I perform, in introducing to you an eminent 
citizen of the West, hitherto known to you only by reputa- 
tion." There was nothing in the introduction, however, 
which pleased Mr. Lincoln so much as Mr. Bryant's state- 
ment in the next day's Evening Post, (of which he was the 
editor) that for the publication of such words of weight and 
wisdom as those of Mr. Lincoln, the pages of that journal 
were "indefinitely elastic." 

Mr. Lincoln began his address in a low, monotonous tone, 
but gaining confidence in the respectful stillness, his tones, 
that had long been keyed to out-of-door efforts, rose in strength 
and gained in clearness, until every ear heard every word. 
His style of speech was so fresh, his mode of statement was 
so simple, his illustrations were so quaint and peculiar, that 
the audience eagerly drank in every sentence. The back- 
woods orator had found one of the most appreciative audiences 
he had ever addressed, and the audience gave abundant testi- 
mony that they were listening to the utterances of a master. 

The speech which Mr. Lincoln made on this occasion must 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 207 

have cost him much labor in the preparation. The historical 
study which it involved — study that led into unexplored fields, 
and fields very difficult of exploration — must have been very 
great; but it was intimate and complete. Gentlemen who 
afterward engaged in preparing the speech for circulation as 
a campaign document were much surprised by the amount of 
research that it required to be able to make the speech, and 
were very much wearied with the work of verifying its his- 
torical statements in detail. They were weeks in finding the 
works consulted by him. 

As a text for the subject of his discourse, he took tne words 
of Senator Douglas, uttered in a speech at Columbus, Ohio, 
the previous autumn, viz: "Our fathers when they framed the 
government under which we live, understood this question 
(the question of slavery) just as well, and even better, than 
we do now." To this statement the speaker agreed,' so that 
he and the senator had a common starting point for discussion. 
The inquiry was, simply: what was the understanding those 
fathers had of the question mentioned ? As questions prelimin- 
ary to this inquiry he gave these : " what is the frame of gov- 
ernment under which we live?" and "who were our fathers 
who framed the Constitution?" The frame of government 
is the Constitution itself, consisting of the original, framed 
in 1787, and twelve subsequent amendments, ten of which 
were framed in 1789. The thirty-nine men who framed the 
original Constitution are legitimately to be called the fathers, 
and these he took as " our fathers who framed the govern- 
ment under which we live." The question fully written 
out, which Senator Douglas thought these men understood 
better than we do, was : " Does the proper division of local 
from federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, forbid 
the federal government control as to slavery in our federal 
territories?" 

From this point Mr. Lincoln went on to draw from the his- 
tory of Congress every recorded act of these thirty-nine men 
on the question of slavery. Question after question upon 
which these men acted was stated in brief, and it was found 



208 LIFE OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 

that, of the thirty-nine fathers, twenty-one, a clear majority, 
so acted that they would be guilty of perjury if they did not 
believe that the federal government had power to control 
slavery in the territories. Two voted against special meas- 
ures, but in such a way as not to show whether they believed 
the government possessed this power or not. Of the remain- 
ing sixteen, there is no record, but it is fair to conclude they 
had the same understanding with the majority, particularly as 
they included some of the most noted anti-slavery men of the 
time, among whom were Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Ham- 
ilton and Gouverneur Morris. 

The historical argument was entirely unanswerable. It 
was a solid and logical statement of facts and conclusions that" 
no sane man would undertake to controvert. The first third 
of the speech was devoted to this historical argument, and 
the remainder in about equal proportions to addresses to the 
southern people, and to the republicans. His remarks ad- 
dressed particularly to the South were in the kindest spirit, 
but they were charged with a force of argument and statement 
that is Avonderful. It is well that Mr. Lincoln be permitted 
to state his own attitude toward those to whom he was des- 
tined to come into such strange and momentous relations. 
He said: 

" You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes an issue ; 
and the burden of proof is upon you. You produce your proof; and 
what is it? Why, that our party has no existence in your section — gets 
no votes in your section. The fact is substantially true ; but does it 
prove the issue ? If it does, then, in case we should, without change of 
principle, begin to get votes in your section, we should thereby cease to 
be sectional. You cannot escape this conclusion ; and yet, are you will- 
ing to abide by it? If you are, you -will probably soon find that we 
have ceased to be sectional, for we shall get votes in your section this 
very year. You will then begin to discover, as the truth plainly is, that 
your proof does not touch the issue. The fact that we get no votes in 
your section is a fact of your making, and not of ours. And if there 
be fault in that fact, that fault is primarily yours, and remains so until 
you show that we repel you by some wrong principle or practice. If 
we do repel you by any wrong principle or practice, the fault is ours ■ 
but this brings us to where you ought to have started — to a discussion 



LIFE. OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 209 

of the right or wrong of our principle. If our principle, put in prac- 
tice, -would wb on for the benefil of ours, or for any other 
object, then our principle, and we with it, are sectional, and are justly 
opposed and denounced as such. Mei . ■ o the question of 
whether our pri it in practi mr section; and 
bo meet it as if it w< re possible ' on our side. 
Do you accept the cl Noi 'i you i ally I i li< ve that the 
principle which our fathers, who framed the gov. under which 
we live, thought so clearly right as to adopt it, and indorse it again and 
again upon their official oaths, is, in fact, so clearly wrong as to demand 
your condemnation without a moment's consideration. 

" Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning against sec- 
tional pari h ington in his Farewell Address. Less than 
eight years before Washington gave that warning, he had, as President 
of the United States, approved and signed an act of Congress enforcing 
the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory, which act em- 
bodied the policy of the government upon that subject, up to and at 
the very moment he penned that warning; and about one year after he 
penned it he wrote Lafayette that he considered that prohibition a wise 
measure, expressing, in the same connection, his hope that we should 
some time have a confederacy of free states. 

"Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has since arisen 
upon this same subject, is that warning a weapon in your hands against 
us, or in our hands against you-? Could Washington himself speak, 
would he cast the blame of that sectionalism upon us, who sustain his 
policy, or upon you, who repudiate it? We respect that warning of 
Washington, and we commend it to you, together with his example 
pointing to the right application of it. 

"But you say you are conservative— eminently conservative— while 
we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is 
conservatism ? Is it not adherence to the old and tried against the new 
and untried ? We stick to, contend for, the identical old policy on the 
point in controversy which was adopted by our fathers who framed the 
government under which we live; while you, with one accord, reject, 
and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting 
something new. True, you disagree among yourselves as to what that 
substitute shall be. You' have considerable variety of new propo- 
sitions and plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and denouncing 
the old policy of the fathers. Some of you arc for reviving the foreign 
slave-trade; some for a congressional slave-code for the territories; 
some for Congress forbidding the territories to prohibit slavery within 
their limits; some for maintaining slavery in the territories through the 
Judiciary ; some for the gur-reat pur-rinciple ' that, 'if one man would 
enslave another, no third man should object,' fantastically called ' popu- 
14 



210 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

lar sovereignty;' but never a man among you in favor of federal pro- 
hibition of slavery in federal territories, according to the practice of 
our fathers who framed the government under which we live. Not one 
of all your various plans can show a precedent or an advocate in the 
century within which our government originated. Consider, then, 
whether your claim of conservatism for yourselves, and your charge of 
destructiveness against us, are based on the most clear and stable foun- 
dations. 

"Again, you say we have made the slavery question more prominent 
than it formerly was. We deny it. We admit that it is more promi- 
nent, but we deny that we made it so. It was not we, but you, who 
discarded the old policy of the fathers. We resisted, and still resist, 
your innovation; and thence comes the greater prominence of the 
question. Would you have that question reduced to its former propor- 
tions? Go back to that old policy. What has been will be again, 
under the same conditions. If you would have the peace of the old 
times, re-adopt the precepts and policy of the old times." 

Alluding to their threats to break up the Union if slavery 
should be shut out of the territories, he said : 

" In that supposed event, you say you will destroy the Union ; and 
then you say the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! 
That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters 
through his teeth : ' Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you 
will be a murderer ! ' To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — 
my money — was my own ; and I had a clear right to keep it ; but it was 
no more my own than my vote is my own; and threat of death to me 
to extort my money, and threat of destruction to the Union to extort 
my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle." 

. Certainly this illustration disposed of the whole question as 
to who would be responsible for the destruction of the Union, 
under the circumstances stated. 

His words to the republicans were words of profoundest 
wisdom. He told them that nothing would satisfy the South 
but to cease calling slavery wrong, and to join with them in 
calling it right, and to do it thoroughly by acts as well as 
words. " We must arrest and return their slaves with greedy 
pleasure. We must pull down our free state constitutions. 
The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint of 
opposition to slavery, before they will cease to believe that all 



LIFE OP ABRAITAM LINCOLN. 211 

their troubles proceed from us." He continued: "I am quite 
aware they do no1 stale their case preci sely in tin's way. Most 
of them -would probably say to us, 'let us alone, do nothing 
to us, and say what yon please about slavery.' But we do 
let them alone — have never disturbed them — so that, alter all, 
it is what we say that dissatisfies them. They will continue 
to accuse us of doing until we cease saying." Alter saying 
that we could not consistently deny the South in its most ex- 
treme demands, on any ground except the wrong of slavery, he 
put the case forcibly, as follows : " If slavery is right, all words, 
acts, laws and constitutions against it are themselves wrong, 
and should he silenced and swept away. If it is right, we 
cannot justly object to its nationality — its universality; if it is 
wrong, they cannot justly insist upon its extension, its enlarge- 
ment. All they ask, we could readily grant if w^e thought 
slavery right ; all Ave ask they coidd as readily grant if they 
thought slavery w r rong. Their thinking it right and our think- 
ing it wrong is the precise fact upon which depends the whole 
controversy." The closing paragraph is equally remarkable 
for its wit and wisdom — its pith and patriotism : 

" "Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where 
it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual 
presence in the nation ; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, 
allow it to spread into the national territories, and to overrun us here 
in these free states V If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand 
by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of 
those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied 
and belabored — contrivances such as groping for some middle ground 
between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who 
should be neither a living man nor a dead man — such as a policy of 
'don't care' on a question about which all true men do care — such as 
Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to disunionists, re- 
versing the divine rule, and calling not the sinners, but the righteous to 
repentance — such as invocations to "Washington, imploring men to un- 
say what Washington said, and undo what Washington did. Neither 
let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor 
frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government, nor of 
dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in 
that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it." 



212 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The speech was, in the popular acceptation of the phrase, a 
treat success. Through all his passages of close and crowded 
reasoning, his audience followed him with an interest that pro- 
duced the profoundest silence, and at every triumphant es- 
tablishment of a point broke out into sudden and hearty 
applause. Those who came from motives of curiosity went 
away thoughtful. Many who had entered the hall in doubt 
as to their duty, went away with their path bright before them. 
Most of all were the New York politicians affected ; and it is 
not to be doubted that the impressions of that evening left 
them convinced that if Mr. Seward, the man of their choice, 
should be set aside, as the republican candidate for the presi- 
dency, Mr. Lincoln, the favorite of the West, would be abund- 
antly worthy of their support. 

At the conclusion of the speech, a few friends took the 
speaker to the rooms of the Atheneum Club for supper. Mr. 
Lincoln appreciated his success, and was in good humor over 
it. He was as happy at the table as he was upon the plat- 
form — full of good humor, and abounding with jokes and 
pleasant stories. Throwing off all reserve, and opening his 
heart like a boy, he talked long and late ; and when he parted 
with his friends for the night they were as much charmed with 
the man as they had been instructed by his speech and enter- 
tained by his conversation. 

The papers of the city were full of his address and with 
comments upon it the next day. The Illinois lawyer was a 
lion. Critics read the speech, and marveled at its pure and 
compact English, its felicity of statement and its faultless logic- 
It was read during the day not only by New York but by 
nearly all New England. 

After the speech, he spent several days in New York, famil- 
iarizing himself with its wonders. Some of his explorations 
he made alone, and on one occasion found his way into the 
Sunday School of the Five Points Mission. The superin- 
tendent noticing his look of interest in the proceedings, invi- 
ted him to speak to the children. His remarks interested his 
young audience so much that on every attempt to stop they 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 213 

cried out "go on, oh! do go on!" None knew who he was, 
and as he turned to depart, the superintendent inquired his 

name. "Abraham Lincoln of Illinois,"' was the answer. 

Invitations were received by Mr. Lincoln from many places 
in New England, to speak on political questions. On the fifth 
of March, he spoke at Hartford, in the city hall, and was e 
corted to the hall by the first company of" Wide- Awakes" ever 
organizecLin the country. This organization became universal 
throughout the free states, but was intended only for campaign 
service. He had an immense audience in Hartford, and pro- 
duced a powerful impression. On the following day he was 
waited upon by a number of prominent citizens, and visited 
several objects of interest in the city, among which were the 
armories of Colt and Sharp. On the sixth of March, he spoke 
at New Haven, at Meriden on the seventh, at AVoonsockct, 
Rhode Island, on the eighth, at Norwich, Connecticut, on the 
ninth, and at Bridgeport on the tenth. His speaking was 
always to immense audiences. Connecticut w r as that year 
carried by the republicans by about five hundred majority, 
against the most powerful efforts of the democrats — a fact 
which was due more to the speeches of Mr. Lincoln than to 
any other cause. * 

Some very interesting reminiscences of this trip were com- 
municated to the public in 1864, by Rev. John P. Gulliver of 
Norwich, who listened to his address in that city.* On the 
morning following the speech., he met Mr. Lincoln upon a train 
of cars, and entered into conversation with him. In speaking 
of his speech, Mr. Gulliver remarked to Mr. Lincoln that he 
thought it the most remarkable one he ever heard. "Are you 
sincere in what you say?" inquired Mr. Lincoln. "I mean 
every word of it," replied the minister. "Indeed, sir," he 
continued, " I learned more of the art of public speaking last 
evening than I could from a whole course of lectures on rhet- 
oric." Then Mr. Lincoln informed him of "a most extraor- 
dinary circumstance" that occurred at New r Haven a few days 
previously. A professor of rhetoric in Yale College, he had 
*JSTe-w York Independent of September 1, 1S64. 



214 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

been told, came to hear him, took notes of his speech, and 
gave a lecture on it to his class the following day, and, not 
satisfied with that, followed him to Meriden the next evening, 
and heard him again for the same purpose. All this seemed 
to Mr. Lincoln to be "very extraordinary." He had been 
sufficiently astonished by his success at the West, but he had 
no expectation of any marked success at the East, particularly 
among literary and learned men. "Now," said Mr. Lincoln, 
"I should like very much to know what it was in my speech 
which you thought so remarkable, and which interested my 
friend the professor so much?" Mr. Gulliver's answer was: 
"The clearness of your statements, the unanswerable style of 
your reasoning, and, especially, your illustrations, which were 
romance and pathos and fun and logic all welded together." 

After Mr. Gulliver had fully satisfied his curiosity by a 
further exposition of the politician's peculiar power, Mr. 
Lincoln said, "I am much obliged to you for this. I have 
been wishing for a lon«; time to find some one who would make 
this analysis for me. It throws light on a subject which has 
been dark to me. I can understand very readily how such a 
power as you have ascribed to me will account for the effect 
which seems to be produced by my speeches. I hope you 
have not been too flattering in your estimate. Certainly I 
have had a most wonderful success for a man of my limited 
education." Then Mr. Gulliver inquired into the processes 
by which he had acquired his education, and was rewarded 
with many interesting details. When they were about to 
part, the minister said : " Mr. Lincoln, may I say one thing to 
you before we separate ? " " Certainly ; anything you please," 
was the response. "You have just spoken," said Mr. Gulli- 
ver, " of the tendency of political life in Washington to debase 
the moral convictions of our representatives there, by the ad- 
mixture of considerations of mere political expediency. You 
have become, by the controversy with Mr. Douglas, one of 
our leaders in this great struggle with slavery, which is un- 
doubtedly the struggle of the nation and the age. What I 
would like to say is this, and I say it with a full heart : Be 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 215 

true to your pi . ' we will be true to you, and God will 

b,' true to us all." INIr. Lincoln, touched by the earnestness 
of his interlocutor, took his hand in both of his own, and, 
with his lace full of sympathetic light, exclaimed: "I say 
amen to that! amen to thai ! " 

After visiting his son at Harvard College, making many ac- 
quaintances among the prominent men of New England, and 
looking with curious eyes upon New England scenes, and ob- 
serving with his native shrewdness the characteristics of New 
England habits and manners, he turned his face homewards 
spending a Sabbath in New York while on the way, and 
again attending Mr. Beecher's church. 

One thing, at least, he had learned by this visit: that the 
people of the older states judge a man by the same rule that 
prevails on an Illinois prairie — by what he is, and what he 
can do, and not by the cloth lie wears, the knowledge he has 
acquired, the wealth lie possesses, or the blood that flows in 
his veins. He had been accepted as an honest, fresh, orio-inal 
and powerful man ; and he w r ent home gratified. Could he 
have made his visit longer, and been seen more generally bv 
the people, it would not have been necessary for them to wait 
so long before knowing how great and good a man the provi- 
dence of God had given to be their ruler. 



CHAPTEK XV. 

The frequent allusions in Mr. Lincoln's speeches to threats 
of secession on the part of the South, in the event of the 
success of the republican party, have already shown the 
reader that secession had become a matter of consideration 
and discussion among those interested in the perpetuation and 
nationalization of slavery. It was evident that the southern 
leaders were preparing the minds of their people for some 
desperate step, and that many of them desired, rather than 
deprecated, the election of a republican president. Many of 
i openly said that they should prefer the election of Mr. 
ird or Mr. Lincoln to the election of Mr. Douglas, be- 
■ then they should know exactly what they were to meet. 
The reason thus given was undoubtedly a fraud. They found 
themselves in desperate circumstances. All their schemes for 
the extension of slavery and the reinforcement of the slave 
power had miscarried. Kansas and California were lost to 
them. There was no hope for them in Nebraska or any of 
the new territories. The hope of acquiring Cuba was gone, 
and the fillibustering operations of Walker which they had 
patronized were failures. They knew of but one remedy — 
that which the great mischief-maker of South Carolina had 
pointed out to them many years before, viz : secession. It is 
doubtful whether they preferred secession to predominance in 
the nation, but, basing their policy on the doctrine of " state 
rights," their aim was to secede, and either to insist on a per- 
manent separation, or .by secession to coerce the government 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 217 

into the practical acknowledgment of their claims. There is 
no doubt that it was the policy of the shrewdest of the slavery- 
propagandists so to manage their party as to secure the election 
of a republican president. Overpowered in the nation, and 
hopeless of tlic future, they looked only for a plausible pretext 
for precipitating the execution of their scheme; and this could 
only be found in the. election of a president professedly a foe 
to the extension of slavery! 

"The Knights of the Golden Circle" were a band of secret 
conspirators organized in the interest of treason. The popular 
political leaders rose to the highest degrees in this order, and 
knew the whole plot, while the masses, many of whom had 
no real sympathy with secession, were kept in the dark, ready 
to be forced into measures that were in cunning and careful 
preparation. The Christian church of the whole South Avas 
the willing slave of this cabal. Preachers proclaimed the 
divine right of slavery and the doctrines of sedition from the 
pulpit. The press was an obedient instrument in their hands. 
There were traitors and plotters in the national government, 
industriously preparing the way for secession, and sapping the 
power of the government to prevent it. Mr. Cobb was 
squandering the national finances. Mr. Floyd, the secretary 
of war, was filling all the southern arsenals with arms at the 
expense of the government, and sending loyal officers to distant 
posts ; and, although a northern man was at the head of the 
navy department, it was subsecpiently found, when ships were 
wanted, that they were very far from where they were wanted. 
These southern men, thus plotting, only waited for a pretext 
for springing their plot upon the people, and of course were 
not reluctant to make a pretext when opportunity offered. 

This was the condition of affairs in the spring of 1860, a 
year which was to see a new president elected. Everybody 
felt that a severe political storm was ahead, though compara- 
tively few, either at the North or the South, knew what its 
character would be. The South blindly followed its leaders, 
without perfectly knowing whither it was to be led. The 
North had become accustomed to threats of dissolution of the 



218 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Union, and did not believe that those then rife would be bet- 
ter fulfilled than those which had preceded them. No one at 
the North, unless it may have been a few sympathetic politi- 
cians, had any faith in the earnestness of the pro-slavery 
schemers. The disruption of the government was regarded as 
an impossibility ; and the Union-loving Yankee would not be- 
lieve that there were any who would push their professed 
enmity to any practical exhibition. 

Mr. Lincoln had scarcely returned to his home before the 
Democratic National Convention assembled at Charleston. This 
convention occurred on the twenty-third of April, and col- 
lected to itself all the plotters against the Union. That they 
met the northern members of the democratic party with any 
expectation to unite with them in a platform and the selection 
of a candidate, is not probable. Mr. Douglas, with his popu- 
lar sovereignty, and Dred Scott decision, and **' don't care " 
policy, offered them the only ground of Union. All saw this, 
and all were for or against Douglas. Douglas was the pivot 
of the convention. Everything turned on him. The northern 
men felt that nothing less than Douglas, who had fought the 
Lecompton fraud and the administration, and had been com- 
pelled to some concessions to freedom in order to win his seat 
in the senate, would do for them, while the South was deter- 
mined to take no man who was not fairly and squarely a pro- 
slavery man, with a clean record, and to subscribe to no 
platform that did not accord to them fully the rights they 
claimed. The South would have only a "sound man," and 
would fight this time only "on principle." If it could not 
have honest victory, it wanted defeat. No "unfriendly legis- 
lation" should exclude slavery from the territories. They 
must have their property protected. Mr. Yancey was present 
as the leader of the "fire-eaters," and could probably have 
foretold the explosion of the convention. There is no doubt 
that he intended nothing else than this, and the convention 
did explode, and the old democratic party that had proved 
invincible on so many battle-fields was rent in twain. The 
southern members, by a large majority, withdrew and formed 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 219 

a "Constitutional Convention." The regular convention re- 
mained in session, and after fifty-seven unsuccessful ballotings, 
iii which Mr. Douglas came near a nomination, they gave it 
up, and adjourned to meet in Baltimore on the eighteenth day 

of June, or two days alter the appointed date of the Republi- 
can Convention at Chicago. The Constitutional Convention 
transacted no important business, and made no nomination, but 
adjourned to meet in Richmond on the second Monday in June. 

The Charleston people were delighted with the results of 
the quarrel. The ladies, only a dozen of whom had been in 
attendance upon the regular convention, turned out and filled 
the hall of the seceders. All the smiles of all the beauty of 
( Jharleston were bestowed upon Mr. Yancey and his followers. 
They undoubtedly regarded this disruption of the party as 
insuring the pretext for disunion for which they so ardently 
wished. 

The democratic host, as they retired in broken columns 
from Charleston, were jostled on the road by the members of 
another convention, on their way to Baltimore — the " National 
Constitutional Union Convention" — made up largely of old 
whigs who still dreamed that the party of their early love 
was in existence — that it was not dead, but sleeping. They 
met on the ninth of May — delegates from ten free states and 
eleven slave states. There is this to be said of this body of 
men — that they were in the main really anxious to save the 
Union, and that they had a juster appreciation of the dangers 
of the Union than the republicans, who were fond of ridicul- 
ing their fears. They passed a "conservative" resolution, 
declaring that they had no principles except "The Constitu- 
tion of the country, the Union of the states, and the enforce- 
ment of the laws." The convention nominated John Bell 
of Tennessee for president, and Edward Everett of Massa- 
chusetts for vice-president, the former of whom, when seces- 
sion came, went over to the disunionists, and the latter of 
whom devoted all his great influence and powers to the main- 
tenance of the government, becoming at last a member of the 
republican party and the recipient of its honors. 



220 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Before entering upon an account of the Chicago Conven- 
tion, it will be best to state, in brief, the result of the demo- 
cratic split at Charleston. The Richmond Convention met 
and adjourned to await, the doings of the Baltimore Conven- 
tion, the members generally going to Baltimore. There they 
joined in an independent convention, making all the mischief 
possible, and nominating for president John C. Breckinridge, 
then vice-president of the United States, and since a Major 
General in the rebel army. The regular convention nomina- 
ted Mr. Douglas, though he had begged them to sacrifice him 
rather than the party. The party, however, was already sac- 
rificed ; and he had had no small hand in the slaughter. The 
antagonism between the southern and northern sections of 
the democracy was irreconcilable. It .was impossible for the 
two to agree upon a platform or a man who would carry 
either section of the country. Mr. Lincoln had his joke and 
his "little story" over the disruption of the democracy. He 
once knew, he said, a sound churchman of the name of Brown, 
who was the member of a very sober and pious committee 
havino- in charge the erection of a bridge over a dangerous 
and rapid river. Several architects failed, and at last Brown 
said he had a friend named Jones who had built several 
bridges, and could undoubtedly build that one. So Mr. Jones 
was called in. "Can you build this bridge?" inquired the 
committee. "Yes," replied Jones, "or any other. I could 
build a bridge to h — 1 if necessary." The committee were 
shocked, and Brown felt called upon to defend his friend. 
"I know Jones so well," said he, "and he is so honest a man, 
and so good an architect, that if he states soberly and pos- 
itively that he can build a bridge to — to — the infernal regions, 
why, I believe it; but I feel bound to say that I have my 
doubts a])out the abutment on the other side." " So,", said 
Mr. Lincoln, " when politicians told me that the northern and 
southern wings of the democracy could be harmonized, why, 
I believed them, of course, but I always had my doubts 
about the abutment on the other side." 

Though the result of the Baltimore Convention was un- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 221 

known at Chicago, it was foreseen, and it was believed that 
victory would come to the republican party with any respect- 
able nominee. When the friends of Douglas left Baltimore, 
they left it with none but bitter feelings for those who had 
destroyed their party, and brought certain defeat to the man 
to whom they were strongly devoted. They felt that Mr. 
Douglas had deserved better treatment at the hands of the 
South than he had received, and saw, in the disruption of 
their party, the defeat of all their hopes. 

The Republican Convention at Chicago assembled on the 
sixteenth of June. There was an immense crowd in attend- 
ance, casting into the shade entirely the assemblages at 
Charleston and Baltimore. Every hotel was crammed from 
basement to attic, even in that city of multitudinous and ca- 
pacious hotels. It was calculated that fifteen hundred persona 
slept in the Tremont House alone. A hucce building was 
erected for the sessions of the convention, which was called 
"The Wigwam;" and even this could not contain more than 
a fraction of the twenty-five thousand strangers who had 
assembled in the city, as delegates and interested observers. 

Edward Bates, Judge McLean, Benjamin F. Wade, N. P. 
Banks, Abraham Lincoln, Simon Cameron, and William H. 
Seward, all had their partisans among outsiders and insiders ; 
but it became evident very early that the contest was really 
between Mr. Seward and Mr. Lincoln. The chiefs of the 
party were all present, excepting, perhaps, those who imagined 
that they might possibly be made the recipients of the conven- 
tion's favors. 

Hon. George Ashmun of Massachusetts was elected to 
preside over the deliberations of the occasion. Canvassing, 
talking, prophesying, betting, declaiming, were actively in 
progress everywhere. On the morning of the seventeenth, 
Mr. Seward's friends made a demonstration in his favor, 
in the form of a procession, following a band of music and 
wearing badges. As they passed the Tremont House, they 
were greeted with tremendous cheers, the band playing " O, 
isn't he a darling?" Antagonisms were developed in every 



222 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

quarter. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Indiana declared 
that if Mr. Seward should be nominated they could do noth- 
ing ; Douglas would beat them ten to one. Illinois, devoted 
to Mr. Lincojn, joined in the cry, but the New Yorkers 
scouted the idea that Mr. Seward could not sweep with vic- 
tory every northern state. The Lincoln men were quite as busy 
as the friends of Mr. Seward, and less noisy. Mr. Greeley tel- 
egraphed to the New York Tribune, on the evening of the 
seventeenth : " My conclusion, from all that I can gather, is, 
that the opposition to Governor Seward cannot concentrate on 
any candidate, and that he will be nominated;" and this, it 
must be remembered, was not in accordance with Mr. Greeley's 
wishes. 

The platform upon which the party proposed to conduct 
the campaign was adopted on the second day. The action 
upon this showed that the party had not quite come to the 
standard of Mr. Lincoln, moderate as he had been. Hon. 
Joshua E. Giddings, one of the old enemies of slavery and 
the slave power, wished to introduce into the platform that 
part of the Declaration of Independence which asserts, as 
self-( vident truths, " that all men are endowed by their Cre- 
ator with certain inalienable rights, among which are those of 
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and that govern- 
ments are instituted among men to secure the enjoyment of 
these rights ; but objections were made. The old man walked 
grieved and disgusted out of the wigwam, amid the protesta- 
tions of the crowd. Mr. George W. Curtis, a New York 
delegate, made an appeal to the convention that was irresisti- 
ble, and the declaration went in, and all felt the stronger and 
better for it. The utterances of Mr. Lincoln have already 
given us the substance of this platform. It contravened no 
right of slavery in the states, under the Constitution, de- 
nounced the subserviency of Mr. Buchanan's administration 
to a sectional interest and the dogma that the Constitution 
carried slavery into the territories and protected it there, de- 
clared that the normal condition of all the territory of the 
United States is that of freedom, and that a sound policy 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 223 

requires a protective tariff, &c.j Sic. It was the platform of 
the old whig party, repeated in most particulars, except that, 
in the matter of slavery, it introduced, not widely modified, 
the old platform of the "free soilers." The platform was 
adopted amid demonstrations of the wildest enthusiasm. An 
eye witness of the scene* says: "all the thousands of men in 
that enormous wigwam commenced swinging their hats, and 
cheering with intense enthusiasm; and the other thousands of 
ladies waved their handkerchiefs and clapped their hands. 
The roar that went up from that mass of ten thousand human 
beings is indescribable. Such a spectacle as was presented 
for some minutes has never before been witnessed at a coi 
tion. A herd of buffaloes or lions could not have made a 
more tremendous roaring." 

The Seward men still carried a confident air on the third 
day. They had reason to do so. Their candidate was in 
many respects the greatest man in the party. lie was a 
statesman of acknowledged eminence, and had been for many 
years the leading representative of the principles upon which 
the republican party stood. They were strong, too, in the 
convention ; and they were sure to secure upon the first ballot 
more votes for their candidate than could be summoned to the 
support of any other man. 

On the assembling of the conventi©n, everybody was anx- 
ious to get at the decisive work, and, as a preliminary, the 
various candidates in the field were formally nominated by 
their friends. Mr. Evarts of New York nominated Mr. Sew- 
ard, and Mr. Judd of Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. 
Afterwards, Mr. Dayton of New Jersey, Mr. Cameron of 
Pennsylvania, Mr. Chase of Ohio, Edward Bates of Missouri, 
and John McLean of Ohio, were formally nominated ; but no 
enthusiasm was awakened by the mention of any names except 
those of Mr. Seward and Mr. Lincoln. Caleb B. Smith of 
Indiana seconded the nomination of Mr. Lincoln, as did also 
Mr. Delano of Ohio, while Carl Schurz of Wisconsin and 

*M. Halstead, author of "Caucuses of 1800." Columbus: Follett, 
Foster & Co. 



224 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Mr. Blair of Michigan seconded the nomination of Mr. Sew- 
ard. It was certain that one of these two men would be nom- 
inated. On every pronunciation of their names, their respect- 
ive partisans raised their shouts, vieing with each other in the 
strength of their applause. The excitement of this mass of 
men at that time cannot be measured by those not there, or by 
men in their sober senses. 

The ballot came. Maine gave nearly half her vote for 
Lincoln ; New Hampshire, seven of her ten for Lincoln. Mas- 
sachusetts was divided. New York voted solid for Mr. Sew- 
ard, giving him her seventy votes. Virginia, which was ex- 
pected also to vote solid for Mr. Seward, gave fourteen of 
her twenty-two votes for Lincoln. Indiana gave her twenty- 
six votes for Lincoln without a break. Thus the balloting 
went on, amid the most intense excitement, until the whole 
number of four hundred and sixty-five votes was cast. It was 
necessary to a choice that one candidate should have two hund- 
red and thirty-three. William H. Seward had one hundred 
and seventy-three and a half, Abraham Lincoln one hund- 
red and two, Edward Bates forty-eight, Simon Cameron fifty 
and a half, Salmon P. Chase forty-nine. The remaining forty- 
two votes were divided among John McLean, Benjamin F. 
Wade, William L. Dayton, John M. Reed, Jacob Collamer, 
Charles Sumner and John C. Fremont, — Reed, Sumner and 
Fremont having one each. 

On the second ballot, the first gain for Lincoln was from 
New Hampshire. Then Vermont followed with her vote, 
which she had previously given to her senator, Mr. Collamer, 
as a compliment. Pennsylvania came next to his support, 
with the votes she had given to Cameron. On the whole 
ballot, he gained seventy-nine votes, and received one hund- 
red and eighty-one ; while Mr. Seward received one hundred 
and eighty-four and a half votes, having gained eleven. The 
announcement of the votes given to Mr. Seward and Mr. 
Lincoln was received by deafening applause by their respect- 
ive partisans. Then came the third ballot. All felt that it 
was likely to be the decisive one, and the friends of Mr. Seward 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 225 

trembled for the result. Hundreds of pencils were In opera- 
tion, and before the result was announced it -was whispered 
through the immense and excited mass of people that Abra- 
ham Lincoln had received two hundred and thirty-one and a 
half votes, only lacking one vote and a half of an election. 
Mr. Cartter of Ohio was up in an instant, to announce the 
change of four votes of Ohio from Mr. Chase to Mr. Lincoln. 
That finished the work. The excitement had culminated. 
After a moment's pause, like the sudden and breathless still- 
ness that precedes the hurricane, the storm of wild, uncon- 
trollable and almost insane enthusiasm descended. The scene 
surpassed description. During all the ballotings, a man had 
been standing upon the roof, communicating the results to the 
outsiders, who, in surging masses, far outnumbered those who 
were packed into the wigwam. To this man one of the sec- 
retaries shouted: "Fire the salute! Abe Lincoln is nomina- 
ted! " Then, as the cheering inside died away, the roar began 
on the outside, and swelled up from the excited masses like 
the noise of many waters. This the insiders heard, and to it 
they replied. Thus deep called to deep with such a frenzy 
of sympathetic enthusiasm that even the thundering salute 
of cannon was unheard by many upon the platform. 

When the multitudes became too tired to cheer more, the 
business of the convention proceeded. Half a dozen men 
were on their feet announcing the change of votes of their 
states, swelling Mr. Lincoln's majority. Missouri, Iowa, 
Kentucky, M innesota, Virginia, California, Texas, District of 
Columbia, Kansas, Nebraska and Oregon insisted on castino- 
unanimous votes for Mr. Lincoln, before the vote w r as declared. 
While these changes were going on, a photograph of the nomi- 
nee was brpught in and exhibited to the convention. AVhen 
the vote was declared, Mr. Evarts, on behalf of the ]S r ew r 
York delegation, expressed his grief that Mr. Seward had 
not been nominated, and then moved that the nomination of 
Mr. Lincoln should be made unanimous. John A. Andrew 
of Massachusetts and Carl Schurz of Wisconsin seconded the 
motion, and it was carried. Before the nomination of a vice- 
15 



226 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

president, the convention adjourned for dinner. It is re- 
ported that such had been the excitement during the morning* 
session that men who never tasted intoxicating liquors stag- 
gered like drunken men, on coming into the open air. The 
nervous tension had been so great that, when it subsided, they 
were as flaccid and feeble as if they had but recently risen 
from a fever. 

The excitement in the city only began as it subsided in the 
convention. Mr. Lincoln was the favorite of Chicago and of 
Illinois — he was the people's idol. Men shouted and sang, 
and did all sorts of foolish things in the incontinence of their 
joy. After dinner the convention met again, and for the last 
time. The simple business was the completion of the ticket 
by the nomination of a candidate for vice-president ; and the 
result was the selection of Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. 

The defeat of Mr. Seward was a sad blow to his friends. 
They had presented to the convention one of the prominent 
statesmen of the nation; and he had undoubtedly been slaugh- 
tered to satisfy the clamor for "availability." The country 
at large did not know Mr. Lincoln in any capacity except 
that of a political debater ; and many sections had no familiar- 
ity with his reputation, even in this character. Mr. Seward, 
on the contrary, had been in public life for thirty years ; and 
his name and fame were as common and as well established 
in the regard of the nation, as the name and fame of Henry 
Clay and Daniel Webster had been. He was a man of great 
accomplishments, of wide experience, of large influence and 
surpassing ability — recognized as such abroad as well as at 
home. Their disappointment is not to be wondered at, or 
blamed. Mr. Lincoln had not been proved. His capacity 
for public affairs had yet to be demonstrated; and he had 
been nominated over the head of Mr. Seward partly for this 
reason — the reason that he was a new man, and had no public 
record. If events have proved that the choice between these 
two men was a fortunate one, they can hardly have proved that 
it was a wise one — that it was the result of an intelligent and 
honest choice between the two men. It is pleasant to remem- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 227 

bcr that Mr. Lincoln, when elected to the presidency, called 
to the first place in his cabinet the man whom the convention 
had set aside, and that the country had the advantage of his 
wise counsels throughout the darkest period and most difficult 
passage of its history. 

As has been stated, the city of Chicago was wild with de- 
light. One hundred guns were fired from the top of the 
Tremont House. Decorated and illuminated rails were around 
the newspaper offices. All the bars and drinking halls were 
crowded with men who were cither worn out with excitement 
or mad with delight. From Chicago the news spread over 
the country, and the cannon's throat responded to the click 
of the telegraph from Maine to the Mississippi. The out- 
going trains that night found bonfires blazing at every village, 
and excited crowds assembled to cheer the retiring delegates, 
most of whom were either too weak or too hoarse to respond. 

In the little city of Springfield, in the heart of Illinois, two 
hundred miles from where those exciting events were in prog- 
ress, sat Abraham Lincoln, in close and constant telegraphic 
communication with his friends in Chicago. He was apprised 
of the results of every ballot, and, with his home friends, sat in 
the Journal office receiving and commenting upon the dis- 
patches. It was one of the decisive moments of his life — a 
moment on which hung his fate as a public man — his place in 
history. He fully appreciated the momentous results of the 
convention to himself and the nation, and foresaAV the nature 
of the great struggle which his nomination and election would 
inaugurate. A moment, and he knew that he would either 
become the central man of a nation, or a cast-off politician 
whose ambition for the nation's highest honors would be for* 
ever blasted. At last, in the midst of intense and painful 
excitement, a messenger from the telegraph office entered with 
the decisive dispatch in his hand. Without handing it to any 
one, he took his way solemnly to the side of Mr, Lincoln, and 
said: "the convention has made a nomination, and Mr. Sew- 
ard is the second man on the list." Then he jumped upon 

the editorial table and shouted, "gentlemen, I propose three 
4 



228 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

cheers for Abraham Lincoln, the next President of the United 
States;" and the call was boisterously responded to. lie then 
handed the dispatch to Mr. Lincoln who read in silence, and 
then aloud, its contents. After the excitement had in a meas- 
ure passed away from the little assembly, Mr. Lincoln rose, 
and remarking that there was "a little woman" on Eighth 
street who had some interest in the matter, pocketed the tele- 
gram and walked home. 

As soon as the news reached Springfield, the citizens who 
had a personal affection for Mr. Lincoln which amounted 
almost to idolatry, responded with a hundred guns, and during 
the afternoon thronged his house to tender their congratula- 
tions and express their joy. In the evening, the State House 
was thrown open, and a most enthusiastic meeting held by the 
republicans. At its close, they marched in a body to the 
Lincoln mansion, and called for the nominee. Mr. Lincoln 
appeared, and after a brief, modest and hearty speech, invited 
as many as could get into the house to enter, the crowd re- 
sponding that after the fourth of March they would give him 
a larger house. The people did not retire until a late hour, 
and then moved off reluctantly, leaving the excited household 
to their rest. 

On the following day, which was Saturday, Mr. Ashmun, 
the president of the convention, at the head of a committee, 
visited Springfield to apprise Mr. Lincoln officially of his 
nomination. In order that the ceremony might be smoothly 
performed, the committee had an interview with Mr. Lincoln 
before the hour appointed for the formal call. They found him 
at a loss to know how to treat a present he had just received 
at the hands of some of his considerate Springfield friends. 
Knowing Mr. Lincoln's temperate or rather abstinent habits, 
and laboring under the impression that the visitors from Chi- 
cago would have wants beyond the power of cold water to 
satisfy, these friends had sent in sundry hampers of wines and 
liquors. These strange fluids troubled Mr. Lincoln ; and he 
frankly confessed as much to the members of the committee. 
The chairman at once advised him to return the gift, and to 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 229 

offer no stimulants to his guests, as many would be present 
besides the committee. Thus relieved, he made ready for the 
reception of the company, according to his own ideas of hos- 
pitality. The evening came, and with it Mr. Ashmun and the 
committee and many others. Mr. Ashmun on being presented 
said : 

"I have, sir, the honor, on behalf of the gentlemen who are present — 
a committee appointed by the republican convention recently assembled 
at Chicago — to discharge a most pleasant duty. We have come, sir, 
under a vote of instructions to that committee, to notify you that you 
have been selected by the convention of the republicans at Chicago 
for President of the United States. They instruct us, sir, to notify you 
of that selection ; and that committee deem it not only res{)ectful to 
yourself, but appropriate to the important matter which they have in 
hand, that they should come in person, and present to you the authentic 
evidence of the action of that convention; and, sir, without any phrase 
which shall either be personally plauditory to yourself, or which shall 
have any reference to the principles involved in the questions which are 
connected with your nomination, I desire to present to you the letter 
which has been prepared, and which informs you of your nomination, 
and with it the platform, resolutions and sentiments which the conven- 
tion adopted. Sir, at your convenience, we shall be glad to receive from 
you such a response as if may be your pleasure to give us." 

Mr. Lincoln listened to the address with sad gravity. There 
was in his heart no exultation — no elation — only the pressure of 
a new and great responsibility. He paused thoughtfully for 
a moment, and then replied : 

"Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the Committee: I .tender to you, 
and through you to the republican national convention, and all the 
people represented in it, my profoundest thanks for the high honor done 
me, which you now formally announce. Deeply and even painfully 
sensible of the great responsibility which is inseparable from this high 
honor— a responsibility which I could almost wish had fallen upon some 
one of the far more eminent and experienced statesmen whose distin- 
guished names were before the convention — I shall, by your leave, con- 
sider more fully the resolutions of the convention denominated the 
platform, and, without any unnecessary or um-easonable delay, respond 
to you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not doubting that the idatform will 
be found satisfactory, and the nomination gratefully accepted. And 
now I will no longer defer the pleasure of taking you, and each of you, 
by the hand." 



230 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Jutlo-c Kelly of Pennsylvania, one of the committee, and 
a very tall man, looked at Mr. Lincoln, up and down, before 
it came his turn to take his hand, a scrutiny that had not 
escaped Mr. Lincoln's quick eye. So, when he took the hand 
of the Judge, he inquired: "what is your hight?" "six feet 
three," replied the Judge. "What is yours, Mr. Lincoln?" 
"Six feet four," responded Mr. Lincoln. "Then, sir," said 
the Judge, "Pennsylvania bows to Illinois. My dear man," 
he continued, " for years my heart has been aching for a presi- 
dent that I could look up to ; and I 've found him at last, in 
the land where we thought there were none but little giants." 

The evening passed quickly away, and the committee re- 
tired with a very pleasant impression of the man in whose 
hands they had placed the standard of the party for a great 
and decisive campaign. Mr. Ashmun met the nominee as an 
old friend, with whom he had acted in Congress, when both 
were members of the old whig party; and the interview be- 
tween them was one of peculiar interest. It is a strange 
coincidence that the man who received Mr. Lincoln's first 
spoken and written utterance as the standard bearer of the 
republican party, received the last word he ever wrote as 
President of the United States. 

On the twenty-third of June, which occurred on the fol- 
lowing week, Mr. Lincoln responded to the letter which Mr. 
Ashmun presented him as follows: 

"Sir: I accept the nomination tendered me by the convention over 
which you presided, of which I am formally apprised in a letter of your- 
self and others, acting as a committee of the convention for that purpose. 
The declaration of principles and sentiments which accompanies your 
letter meets my approval, and it shall be my care not to violate it, or 
disregard it in any part. Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, 
and with due regard to the views and feelings of all who were repre- 
sented in the convention, to the rights of all the states and territories 
and people of the nation, to the inviolability of the Constitution and 
the perpetual union, harmony and prosperity of all, I am most happy to 
co-operate for the practical success of the principles declared by the 
convention. Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, 

"Abraham Lincoln. 

"Hon. George AsnMUN." 



LIFE OF ABKAIIAM LINCOLN. 231 

Thus was Abraham Lincoln placed before the nation as a 
candidate for the highest honor in its power to bestow. It 
had been a long and tedious passage to this point in his history. 
He was in the fifty-second year of his age. lie had spent 
half of his years in what was literally a wilderness. Born in 
the humblest and remotest obscurity, subjected to the rudest 
toil in the meanest offices, gathering his acquisitions from the 
scantiest sources, achieving the development of his powers by 
means of his own institution, he had, with none of the tricks 
of the demagogue, with none of the aids of wealth and social 
influence, with none of the opportunities for exhibiting his 
powers which high official position bestows, against all the 
combinations of genius and eminence and interest, raised him- 
self by force of manly excellence of heart and brain into na- 
tional recognition, and had become the focal center of the 
affectionate interest and curious inquisition of thirty millions 
of people at home, and of multitudes throughout the civilized 
world. 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

And now began a new life, so unlike anything that Mr. 
Lincoln had hitherto experienced that he found himself alto- 
gether afloat as to the proprieties of his position. His nomi- 
nation had not elevated or elated him ; and he did not see why 
it should change his manners or his bearing toward anybody. 
He had been diminished .in his own estimation — in some re- 
spects humbled and oppressed — by the great responsibilities 
placed upon him, rather than made important and great. He 
was the people's instrument, the people's servant, the people's 
creation. He could put on none of the airs of eminence; he 
could place no bars between himself and those who had hon- 
ored him. None of his old heartiness and simplicity left him. 
Men who entered his house impressed with a sense of his new 
dignities, found him the same honest, affectionate, true-hearted 
and simple-minded Abraham Lincoln that he had always been. 
He answered his own bell, accompanied his visitors to the door 
when they retired, and felt all that interfered with his old 
homely and hearty habits of hospitality as a burden — almost 
an impertinence. 

From this moment to the moment of his death he knew 
nothing of leisure. He was astonished to find how many 
friends he had. They thronged his house from every quarter 
of the country. Probably no candidate for presidential hon- 
ors was ever so beset by place-seekers and lion-hunters as was 
Mr. Lincoln ; for it is rare indeed that any man is nominated 
for the presidency with the same moral certainty of an elec- 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 233 

tlon which attached to his Drospectsi It was almost univer- 
sally believed, both at the North and the South, that he would 
be elected; and he was treated like a man who already had 
the reins of power in his hands. 

Some of his friends who had witnessed his laborious way 
of receiving and dismissing his guests and visitors interposed 
with "Thomas," a colored servant who became very useful to 
him; but it was very hard and very unnatural for him. to yield 
to another, and he a servant, the ministry of the courtesies 
which it was so much his delight to render; and he not un- 
frequcntly broke over the rules which his considerate advisers 
undertook to impose upon him. One thing was remarkable 
in these receptions — his attention to the humble and the poor. 
No poor, humble, scared man ever came into his house toward 
whom his heart did not at once go out with a gush of noble 
sympathy. To these he was always particularly attentive, 
and they were placed at ease at once. lie took pains to show 
them that no change of circumstances could make him forget 
his early condition, or alienate his heart from those with whom 
he had shared the hardships and humilities of obscurity and 
poverty. 

The interruption of family privacy and comfort by the con- 
stant throng of visitors at last became intolerable, and it was 
determined that Mr. Lincoln should hold his receptions else- 
where. Accordingly the Executive Chamber, a large fine room 
in the State House, was set apart for him ; and in this room he 
met the public until, after his election, he departed for A\ ash- 
ington. Here he met the millionaire and the menial, the 
priest and the politician, men, women and children, old friends 
and new friends, those who called for love and those who 
sought for office. From morning until night this was his bus- 
iness; and he performed it with conscientious care and the 
most unwearying patience. 

As illustrative of the nature of many of his calls, a brace 
of incidents may be recorded as they were related to the writer 
by an eye-witness. Mr. Lincoln being seated in conversation 
with a gentleman one day, two raw, plainly dressed young 



234: LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

"Suckers" entered the room, and bashfully lingered near the 
door- As soon as he observed them, and apprehended their 
embarrassment, he rose and walked to them, saying, "How 
do you do, my good fellows? "What can I do for you? Will 
you sit down?" The spokesman of the pair, the shorter of 
the two, declined to sit, and explained the object of the call 
thus : he had had a talk about the relative hight of Mr. Lin- 
coln and his companion, and had asserted his belief that they 
were of exactly the same hight. He had come in to verify 
his judgment. Mr. Lincoln smiled, went and got his cane, 
and, placing the end of it upon the wall, said, "here, young 
man, come under here." The young man came under the 
cane, as Mr. Lincoln held it, and when it was perfectly ad- 
justed to his hight, Mr. Lincoln said: "now come out and 
hold up the cane." This he did while Mr. Lincoln stepped 
under. Rubbing his head back and forth to see that it worked 
easily under the measurement, he stepped out, and declared 
to the sagacious fellow who was curiously looking on, that he 
had guessed with remarkable accuracy — that he and the young 
man were exactly of the same hight. Then he shook hands 
with them and sent them on their way. Mr. Lincoln would 
just as soon have thought of cutting off his right hand as he 
would have thought of turning those boys away with the im- 
pression that they had in any way insulted his dignity. 

They had hardly disappeared when an old and modestly 
dressed woman made her appearance. She knew Mr. Lincoln, 
but Mr. Lincoln did not at first recognize her. Then she un- 
dertook to recall to his memory certain incidents connected 
with his rides upon the circuit — especially his dining at her 
house upon the road at different times. Then he remembered 
her and her home. Having fixed her own place in his recol- 
lection, she tried to recall to him a certain scanty dinner of 
bread and milk that he once ate at her house. He could not 
remember it — on the contrary, he only remembered that he 
had always fared well at her house. "Well," said she, "one 
day you came along after we had got through dinner, and we 
had eaten up everything, and I could give you nothing but a 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 235 

bowl of bread and milk ; and you ate it ; and when you got 
up you said it was good enough for the President of the United 
States." The good old woman, remembering the remark, 
had come in from the country, making a journey of eight or 
ten miles, to relate to Mr. Lincoln this incident, which, in her 
mind, had doubtless taken the form of prophesy. Mr. Lincoln 
placed the honest creature at her ease, chatted with her of 
old times, and dismissed her in the most happy and compla- 
cent frame of mind. 

The interviews of this character were almost numberless, 
constantly intermingled with grave conversations with states- 
men and politicians concerning the campaign in progress, and 
the condition and prospects of the country. The future was 
very dark. Threats of secession grew louder and deeper. 
Steps towards treason were bolder with every passing day. 
He knew the spirit of slavery. He had measured it in all the 
length and breadth of its malignity and treachery. He felt 
that he was entering upon a path full of danger, overshadowed 
all the way with doubt and fear. With this great care upon 
him — with the burden of a nation already taken upon his 
shoulders — he was often bowed down with the deepest des- 
pondency. He believed in his inmost soul that he was an in- 
strument in the hands of God for the accomplishment of a 
great purpose. The power was above him, the workers were 
around him, the end was beyond him. In him, Providence, 
the people and the purpose of both met ; and as a poor, weak, 
imperfect man, he felt humbled by the august presence, and 
crushed by the importance with which he had been endowed. 

Of one thing Mr, Lincoln felt sure: that in the great 
struggle before him he ought to be supported by the Christian 
sentiment and the Christian influence of the nation. Nothing 
pained him more than the thought that a man professing the 
religion of Jesus Christ, and especially a man who taught the 
religion of Jesus Christ, should be opposed to him. He felt 
that every religious man — every man who believed in God, 
in the principles of everlasting justice, in truth and righteous- 
ness — should be opposed to slavery, and should support 



23G LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and assist him in the struggle against inhumanity and op- 
pression which he felt to be imminent. It was to him a great 
mystery how those who preached the gospel to the poor, and 
who, by their Divine Master, were sent to heal the broken- 
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and to set at 
liberty those that were bruised, could be his opponents and 
enemies. 

Mr. Newton Batcman, Superintendent of Public Instruction 
for the State of Illinois, occupied a room adjoining and opening 
into the Executive Chamber. Frequently this door was open 
during Mr. Lincoln's receptions; and throughout the seven 
months or more of his occupation Mr. Bateman saw him 
nearly every day. Often when Mr. Lincoln was tired he 
closed his door against all intrusion, and called Mr. Bateman 
into his room for a quiet talk. On one of these occasions 
Mr. Lincoln took up a book containing a careful canvass of 
the city of Springfield in which he lived, showing the candi- 
date for whom each citizen had declared it his intention to 
vote in the approaching election. Mr. Lincoln's friends had, 
doubtless at his own request, placed the result of the canvass 
in his hands. This was toward the close of October, and 
only a few days before the election. Calling Mr. Bateman to a 
seat at his side, having previously locked all the doors, he said : 
"let us look over this book. I wish particularly to see how 
the ministers of Springfield are going to vote." The leaves 
were turned, one by one, and as the names were examined 
Mr. Lincoln frequently asked if this one and that were not a 
minister, or an elder, or the member of such or such a church, 
and sadly expressed his surprise on receiving an affirmative 
answer. In that manner they went through the book, and 
then he closed it and sat silently and for some minutes regard- 
ing a memorandum in pencil which lay before him. At length 
he turned to Mr. Bateman with a face full of sadness, and 
said: "Here are twenty-three ministers, of different denomi- 
nations, and all of them are against me but three ; and here 
are a great many prominent members of the chiu-ches, a very 
large majority of whom are against me. Mr. Bateman, I am 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 237 

not a Christian — God knows I would be one — but I have 
carefully read the Bible, and I do not so understand this 
book ; " and he drew from his bosom a pocket New Testament. 
"These men well know," he continued, "that I am for freedom 
in the territories, freedom everywhere as far as the Constitu- 
tion and laws will permit, and that my opponents are for 
slavery. They know this, and yet, with this book in their 
hands, in the light of which human bondage cannot live a 
moment, they are going to vote against me. I do not under- 
stand it at all." 

Here Mr. Lincoln paused — paused for long minutes, his 
features surcharged with emotion. Then he rose and walked 
up and down the room in the effort to retain or regain his 
self-possession. Stopping at last, he said, with a trembling 
voice and his cheeks wet with tears: "I know there is a God, 
and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm 
coming, and I know that His hand is in it. If lie has a place 
and work for me — and I think He has — I believe I am ready. 
I am nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am right 
because I know that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it, 
and Christ is God. I have told them that a house divided 
against itself cannot stand, and Christ and reason say the 
same ; and they will find it so. Douglas don't care whether 
slavery is voted up or voted down, but God cares, and hu- 
manity cares, and I care; and with God's help I shall not 
fail. I may not see the end; but it will come, and I shall be 
vindicated ; and these men will find that they have not read 
their Bibles aright." 

Much of this was uttered as if he were speaking to him- 
self, and with a sad and earnest solemnity of manner impos- 
sible to be described. After a pause, he resumed: "Does n't 
it appear strange that men can ignore the moral aspects of 
this contest? A revelation could not make it plainer to me 
that slavery or the government must be destroyed. The future 
would be something awful, as I look at it, but for this rock on 
which I stand" (alluding to the Testament which he still held 
in his hand,) "especially with the knowledge of how these 



238 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ministers are going to vote. It seems as if God had borne 
with this thing (slavery) until the very teachers of religion 
have come to defend it from the Bible, and to claim for it a 
divine character and sanction; and now the cup of iniquity 
is full, and the vials of wrath will be poured out." 

His last reference was to certain prominent clergymen in 
the South, Drs. Ross and Palmer among the number ; and he 
went on to comment on the atrociousness and essential blas- 
phemy of their attempts to defend American slavery from the 
Bible. After this the conversation was continued for a long 
time. Everything he said was of a peculiarly deep, tender 
and religious tone, and all was tinged with a touching melan- 
choly. He repeatedly referred to his conviction that the day 
of wrath was at hand, and that he was to be an actor in the 
terrible struggle which would issue in the overthrow of slav- 
ery, though he might not live to see the end. He repeated 
many passages of the Bible, and seemed specially impressed 
with the solemn grandeur of portions of Revelation, describ- 
ing the wrath of Almighty God. In the course of the con- 
versation, he dwelt much upon the necessity of faith in the 
Christian's God, as an element of successful statesmanship, 
especially in times like those which were upon him, and said 
that it gave that calmness and tranquillity of mind, that as- 
surance of ultimate success, which made a man firm and im- 
movable amid the wildest excitements. After further refer- 
ence to a belief in Divine Providence, and the fact of God in 
history, the conversation turned upop prayer. He freely 
stated his belief in the duty, privilege and efficacy of prayer, 
and intimated, in no unmistakable terms, that he had sought 
in that way the divine guidance and favor. 

The effect of this conversation upon the mind of Mr. Bate- 
man, a Christian gentleman whom Mr. Lincoln profoundly 
respected, was to convince him, that Mr. Lincoln had, in his 
quiet way, found a path to the Christian stand-point — that he 
had found God, and rested on the eternal truth of God As 
the two men were about to separate, Mr. Bateman remarked: 
"I have not supposed that you were accustomed to think so 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 239 

much upon this class of subjects. Certainly your friends gen- 
erally are ignorant of the sentiments you have expressed to 
me." He replied quickly: "I know they are. I am obliged 
to appear different to them ; but I think more on these sub- 
jects than upon all others, and I have done so for years 3 and 
I am willing that you should know it." 

This remarkable conversation furnishes a golden link in the 
chain of Mr. Lincoln's history. It flashes a strong light 
upon the path he had already trod, and illuminates every page 
of his subsequent record. Men have wondered at his abound- 
ing charity, his love of men, his equanimity under the most 
distressing circumstances, his patience under insult and mis- 
representation, his delicate consideration of the feelings of 
the humble, his apparent incapacity of resentment, his love of 
justice, his transparent simplicity, his truthfulness, his good 
will toward his enemies, his beautiful and unshaken faith in 
the triumph of the right. There was undoubtedly something 
in his natural constitution that favored the development of these 
qualities ; but those best acquainted with human nature will 
hardly attribute the combination of excellencies which were 
exhibited in his character and life to the unaided forces of his 
constitution. The man who carried what he called "this 
rock" in his bosom, who prayed, who thought more of re- 
ligious subjects than of all others, who had an undying faith 
in the providence of God, drew his life from the highest foun- 
tains. 

It was one of the peculiarities of Mr. Lincoln to hide these 
religious experiences from the eyes of the world. In the same 
State House where this conversation occurred, there were men 
who imagined— who really believed— who freely said— that 
Mr. Lincoln had probably revealed himself with less restraint 
to them than to others— men who thought they knew him as 
they knew their bosom companions — who had never in their 
whole lives heard from his lips one word of all these religious 
convictions and experiences. They did not regard him as a 
religious man. They had never seen anything but the active 
lawyer, the keen politician, the jovial, fun-loving companion, 



240 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

in Mr. Lincoln. All this department of his life he had kept 
carefully hidden from them. Why he should say that he Avas 
obliged to appear differently to others does not appear; but 
the fact is a matter of history that he never exposed his own 
religious life to those who had no sympathy with it. It is 
doubtful whether the clergymen of Springfield knew anything 
of these experiences. Very few of them were in political 
sympathy with him ; and it is evident that he could open his 
heart to no one except under the most favorable circumstances. 
The fountain from which gushed up so grand and good a life 
was kejit carefully covered from the eyes of the world. Its 
possessor looked into it often, but the careless or curious 
crowd were never favored with the vision. There was much 
in his conduct that was simply a cover to these thoughts — an 
attempt to conceal them. It is more than probable that, on 
separating with Mr. Bateman on this occasion, he met some old 
friend, and, departing by a single bound from his tearful mel- 
ancholy and his sublime religious passion, he told him some 
story, or indulged in some jest, that filled his own heart with 
mirthfulness, and awoke convulsions of laughter in him who 
heard it. 

These sudden and wide transitions of feeling were common 
with him. He lived for years a double life — a deep and a 
shallow one, Oppressed with great responsibilities, absorbed 
by the most profound problems relating to his own spirit and 
destiny, brought into sympathetic relation with the woes of 
the world, and living much in the very depths of a sadness 
whose natural fountain had been deepened by the experience 
of his life, he found no relief except by direct and entire 
translation to that other channel of his life which lay among 
his shallowest emotions. His sense of the ludicrous and the 
grotesque, of the witty and the funny, was really something 
wonderful ; and when this sense was appealed to by a story, 
or an incident, or a jest, he seemed to leave all his dignity 
aside, and give himself up to mirth with no more of self-re- 
straint than if he were a boy of twelve years. He resorted 
to this channel of life for relief. It was here that he won 



LIFE OF ABB AH AM LINCOLN'. 241 

strength for trial by forgetting trial. It was here'that he 
restored the balance which sadness had destroyed.' Such a 
nature and character seem full of contradictions; and a man 
who is subject to such transitions will always be a mystery to 
those Avho do not know him wholly. Thus no two men among 
his intimate friends will agree concerning him:' 

The writer has conversed with multitudes of men who 
claimed to know Mr. Lincoln intimately; yet there are ■ not 
two of the whole number who agree in their estimate of him. 
The fact was that he rarely showed more than one aspect of 
himself to one man. He opened himself to men in different 
directions. It was rare that he exhibited what was religious- 
in him ; and he never did this at all, except when he found 
just the nature and character that were sympathetic with that 
aspect and element of his character. A great deal of his 
best, deepest, largest life he kept almost constantly from view, 
because he would not expose it to the eyes and apprehension 
of the careless multitude. 

To illustrate the effect of the peculiarity of Mr. Lincoln's 
intercourse with men, it may be said that men who knew him 
through all his professional and political life have offered 
opinions as diametrically opposite as these, viz: that he was 
a very ambitious man, and that he was without a particle of 
ambition ; that he was one of the saddest men that ever lived, 
and that he was one of the jolliest men that ever lived ; that 
he was very religious, but that he was not a Christian ; that 
he was a Christian, but did not know it ; that he was so 
far from being a religious man or a Christian that " the less 
said upon that subject the better;" that he was the most 
cunning man in America, and that he had not a particle of 
cunning in him; that he had the strongest personal attach- 
ments, and that he had no personal attachments at all — only a 
general good feeling toward everybody ; that he was a man of 
indomitable will, and that he was a man almost without a 
will; that he was a tyrant, and that he was the softest-hearted, 
most brotherly man that ever lived; that he was remarkable 
for his pure-mindedness, and that he was the foulest in his 
16 



242 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

jests and stories of any man in the country; that he was a 
witty man, and that he was only a retailer of the wit of others ; 
that his apparent candor and fairness were only apparent, and 
that they were as real as his head and his hands ; that he was 
a boor, and that he was in all essential respects a gentleman ; 
that he was a leader of the people, and that he was always 
led by the people; that he was cool and impassive, and that 
he was susceptible of the strongest passions. It is only by 
tracing these separate streams of impression back to their 
fountain that we are able to arrive at anything like a compe- 
tent comprehension of the man, or to learn why he came to 
be held in such various estimation. Men caught only separate 
aspects of his character — only the fragments that were called 
into exhibition by their own qualities. 



Thus the months passed away until the election. His room 
was thronged by visitors from every portion of the Union, 
drawn to him by a great variety of motives; and to all he 
gave an open and cordial welcome. In the meantime his po- 
litical opponents had virtually given up the contest. While 
they worked faithfully within their own organizations, they 
openly or secretly conceded his election. At the South no 
attempt was made to conceal the conviction that he would be 
the next President of the United States. Indeed, this was so 
entirely what they desired that they would have regarded the 
election of Mr. Douglas as a calamity, although it may well 
be doubted whether they would have been deterred from their 
disunion schemes by his election. They took pains to poison 
the public mind by every possible expedient. They identified 
the cause of the republicans with the John Brown raid into 
Virginia, with everything that was offensive to the pride of 
the South in Helper's " Impending Crisis," with "abolitionism" 
which was the most disgusting and dangerous sin in the pro- 
slavery catalogue of sins. It was all a lie. Not a republican 
was concerned in or approved of the John Brown invasion, for 
which Virginia had exacted the life of that stern old enthusiast. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 243 

Helper's hook was a home production of the South; and the 
creed of the party had no item looking to the abolition of 
slavery. Not content with misrepresenting Mr. Lincoln's 
cause and principles, they traduced him and his associates 
upon the ticket. Mr. Lincoln was called the "Illinois ape," 
and this, not by the rabble, but by the leaders of public opin- 
ion ; while Mr. Hamlin was actually believed by many south- 
ern people to be a mulatto, through the representations of 
presses and politicians. Every falsehood that could sting the 
southern mind to malignity and resentment against the North, 
and make detestable the man "whom the North was about to 
elect to the presidency, was shamelessly uttered. The object, 
of course, was to fill the southern mind with bitterness against 
the North, to alienate the Union from its affections, to foster 
its pride, and to prepare it for the premeditated and prepared 
separation. 

Mr. Lincoln saw the gathering storm, and felt that upon 
him it would expend its wildest fury; yet he cherished no re- 
sentment against these men or their section for all the wrongs 
they heaped upon him, and the woes they were bringing upon 
the country. He was only an instrument in the hands of a 
higher power. It was only the natural exhibition of the 
spirit of a system of wrong which was making its last terrible 
struggle for life. The hatred aroused in him passed over the 
heads of his enemies and fastened itself upon the institution 
which could make such demons of men. If he was an instru- 
ment in the hands of a higher power, they were instruments 
in the hands of a lower power, malignant but mighty indeed. 
He had charity, because he felt these men to be the victims 
of a false education — of a great mistake. He remembered 
that had he been bred as they had been, the probabilities were 
that he should sympathize with them. 

Mr. Lincoln was what was called a wise candidate. He 
held his tongue. No abuse provoked him to utter a word in 
self-vindication. He had accepted the platform of the party 
and his record was before the country. So he calmly awaited 
the result. 



244 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

On the sixtli of November the election took place through- 
out the whole country, and the result was Mr. Lincoln's tri- 
umph, not by a majority of the votes cast, but by a handsome 
plurality. The popular vote for him was 1,857,610; while 
Stephen A. Douglas received 1,365,976 votes, John C. Breck- 
inridge 817,953, and John Bell 590,631. In the electoral 
college Mr. Lincoln had 180 votes, Mr. Douglas receiving 12, 
Mr. Breckinridge 72, and Mr. Bell 39; and when, on the fol- 
lowing thirteenth of February, in a joint session of both 
Houses of Congress, these votes were declared, it was the of- 
fice of John C. Breckinridge himself, then Vice-President, to 
pronounce Mr. Lincoln the constitutionally elected President 
of the United States for four years from the succeeding fourth 
of March. And this man who, by going into the election as a 
candidate for the presidency, and declaring the result of the 
contest, had bound himself by every principle of honor to 
abide by the result, was a foul traitor at heart, and only left 
the chair he disgraced to become a leader in the armies of 
treason. 

The result of the election was great popular rejoicing at 
the North, great exasperation at the South, great fear and 
trembling among compromisers of both sections, and a general 
conviction that the crisis so long threatened was actually upon 
the nation. Among the republicans there Avas this feeling : that 
they had fairly, on an open declaration of principles and policy, 
and strictly according to the provisions of the Constitution, 
elected a president ; and that if, for this, the South was de- 
termined to make Avar, the contest might as well come first as 
last. They knew they had made no proposition and enter- 
tained no intention to interfere with slavery in the states where 
the Constitution protected it, that they had made no aggres- 
sions upon the institution, and had only endeavored to limit 
its spread into free territory. If this was cause of war, then 
they were ready for the fight. Feeling thus, and thus declar- 
ing themselves, they still did not generally believe there would 
be a Avar. They thought the matter would yet rise upon the 
wings of some convenient wind and be bloAvn aAvay. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIJvXOLN. 245 

Of course the man of all others chiefly concerned in the 
results of the election was intensely interested. The effect 
upon his nervous system, not altogether ephemeral, is well 
illustrated by an incident which he subsequently related to 
several of his friends, and which has found no better record, 
perhaps, than in an article from the pen of Major John Hay, 
one of his private secretaries in Washington, published in 
Harper's Magazine for July, 1865. Major Hay reports the 
incident as nearly as possible in Mr. Lincoln's own words. 

"It was just after my election in 18G0," said Mr. Lincoln, 
"when the news had been coming in thick and fast all day, 
and there had been a great 'hurrah boys !' so that I was well 
tired out and went home to rest, throwing myself upon a 
lounge in my chamber. Opposite to where I lay w T as a bu- 
reau with a swinging glass upon it ; and looking in that glass, 
I saw myself reflected nearly at full length ; but my face, I 
noticed, had two separate and distinct images, the tip of the 
nose of one being about three inches from the tip of the other. 
I was a little bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked 
in the glass, but the illusion vanished. On lying down again, 
I saw it a second time, plainer, if possible, than before ; and 
then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler — say 
five shades — than the other. I got up and the thing melted 
away, and I went off, and, in the excitement of the hour for- 
got all about it, — nearly, but not quite, for the thing would 
once in a while come up, and give me a little pang as though 
something uncomfortable had happened. When I went home, 
I told my wife about it, and a few days after I tried the ex- 
periment again, when, sure enough, the thing came back again; 
but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, 
though I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, 
who was worried about it somewhat. She thought it was ' a 
sign ' that I was to be elected to a second term of office, and 
that the paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I should 
not see life through the last term." 

The President had good sense enough to regard the vision 
as an optical illusion, growing out of the excited condition of 



246 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

his nervous system at the time ; yet, with that tinge of super- 
stition which clings to every sensitive and deeply thoughtful 
man, in a world full of mysteries, he was so far affected by it 
as to feel that " something uncomfortable had happened." In 
the li'dit of subsequent events, Mrs. Lincoln's prophetic in- 
terpretation of the vision has almost a startling interest. 

Mr. Lincoln had become the most important man on the 
continent. Parties were given in his honor, autograph hunters 
beset him everywhere, and office-seekers met him on the right 
hand and on the left. That he felt at home in this new life 
is not probable, but he had the good sense to put on no airs, 
and to undertake no change of his manners in meeting men 
and women. From the day of his election to the day of his 
death, he was the same unpretending man that he was when 
he first entered Springfield to practice law. He had known 
nothing of drawing-rooms in his youth, and he affected to 
know nothing of them when every drawing-room of loyal 
America would have swung wide its doors to welcome him. 
It was noticed by the critical that he found great difficulty in 
disposing of his hands and feet. It is quite possible that they 
were hard to be disposed of, and that he succeeded with them 
quite as well as he would if he had been a master of deport- 
ment. If the hands were large, they had taken no bribes ; if 
his feet were heavy, they had outstripped the fleetest in the 
race of ambition. If he could not win admiration for his 
personal graces, he could win love for his personal goodness. 

He visited Chicago after his election, and met with a mag- 
nificent welcome. One or two little incidents of this trip will 
illustrate especially his consideration for children. He was 
holding a reception at the Tremont House. A fond father 
took in a little boy by the hand who was anxious to see the 
new President. The moment the child entered the parlor door, 
he, of his own motion, and quite to the surprise of his father, 
took off his hat, and giving it a swing, cried, "Hurrah for 
Lincoln!" There was a crowd, but as soon as Mr. Lincoln 
could get hold of the little fellow, he lifted him in his hands, 
and tossing him toward the ceiling laughingly shouted : " Hur- 



LIFE OF ABRAIIAM LINCOLN. 247 

rah for you!" To Mr. Lincoln it was evidently a refreshing 
episode in the dreary work of hand-shaking. At a party in 
Chicago, during this visit, lie saw a little girl timidly ap- 
proaching him. lie called her to him, and asked her what 
she wished for. She replied that she wanted his name. Mr. 
Lincoln looked back into the room and said : " But here are 
other little girls — they would feel badly if I should give 
my name only to you." The little girl replied that there 
were eight of them in all. " Then," said Mr. Lincoln, " get 
me eight sheets of paper, and a pen and ink, and I will see 
what I can do for you." The paper was brought, and Mr. 
Lincoln sat down in the crowded drawing-room, and wrote a 
sentence upon each sheet, appending his name ; and thus every 
little girl carried off her souvenir. 

During all this period of waiting for office," Mr. Lincoln 
carried a calm exterior but events were transpiring in the na- 
tion that gave him the most intense anxiety, and filled every 
leisure hour with painful thought. 

There were, of course, the usual efforts at cabinet making 
on the part of presses and politicians, and he was favored with 
copious advice. It has been publicly said that he really de- 
sired to put Mr. Stephens of Georgia, whom he had been 
somewhat intimate with in Congress, into his cabinet. The 
appointment was at least strongly urged upon him. The re- 
publicans were seeking for some policy by which the South 
could be silenced and held to its allegiance. Many republi- 
cans in Washington were inclined to compromise the slavery 
question on the popular sovereignty position. Others thought 
it would be well to put southerners into the cabinet, and the 
names of Stephens of Georgia and Scott of Virginia were 
mentioned. These facts a personal friend communicated to 
Mr. Lincoln, and under date of December eighteenth, he re- 
plied : " I am sorry any republican inclines to dally with popu- 
lar sovereignty of any sort. It acknowledges that slavery 
has equal rights with liberty, and surrenders all we have con- 
tended for. Once fastened on us as a settled policy, fillibus- 
tering for all south of us and making slave states of it follow 



248 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

in spite of us, with an early supreme court decision holding 
our free state constitutions to be unconstitutional. "Would 
Scott or Stephens go into the cabinet? And if yea, on what 
terms ? Do they come to me ? or I go to them ? Or are we 
to lead off in open hostility to each other?" 

In Mr. Lincoln, though the prospect was dark and the way 
dangerous, there was no disposition to compromise the princi- 
ples of his life and his party, and no entertainment of the illu- 
sion that concord could come of discord in his cabinet. In the 
latter matter he kept his own coimsel and awaited his own 
time. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

To appreciate the enormity of the rebellion of which Mr. 
Lincoln's election was made the pretext, by the southern 
leaders, it is never to be forgotten that the whole South, by 
becoming a party in the election, committed itself to the result. 
They were in all honor bound to abide by that result, what- 
ever it might be. If the foes of Mr. Lincoln had refused to 
vote at all, they would have gone into the rebellion with a 
much cleaner record ; but the first item of that record was a 
breach of personal honor on the part of every man who en- 
gaged in insurrection. Every member of both houses of 
Congress, every member of the cabinet, and every federal 
office-holder who turned against the government, was obliged, 
beyond this breach of personal honor to become a perjurer — 
to trample upon the solemn oath by virtue of Avhich he held 
his office. 

Allusion has already been made to the operations of the 
plotters in Mr. Buchanan's cabinet. Before the election, 
Floyd had, as has already been stated, sent one hundred and 
fifteen thousand muskets from northern armories to southern 
arsenals. General Scott had warned him of the danger to 
which the federal forts at the South were liable, and had ad- 
vised that, as a precautionary measure, they should be (Garri- 
soned. To this warning the secret traitor paid no attention. 
Attorney General Black had given his official opinion that 
Congress had no right to carry on a war against any state. 
The President himself was only a weak instrument in tlie 



250 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

hands of the intriguers. He consented to have his hands tied ; 
and if he made any protests they were weak and childish. 
More than anything else he longed to have them delay the 
execution of their schemes until he should be released from 
office. 

South Carolina, the breeding bed of secession and the birth- 
place of the fatal State Rights Heresy, took the lead in the se- 
cession movement, and called a state convention to meet at Co- 
lumbia on the seventeenth of December. On the tenth of 
November, four days after the election, a bill was introduced 
in the legislature of the state calling out ten thousand volun- 
teers. The two senators from South Carolina, Chesnut and 
Hammond, resigned their seats, one on the tenth and the 
other on the eleventh of the same month. Robert Toombs, a 
Georgia senator, made a violent secession speech at Milledge- 
ville in his own state, and this, notwithstanding the fact that 
he continued to hold his seat. Howell Cobb, the Secretary 
of the Treasury, resigned on the tenth of December, declaring 
his inability to relieve the treasury from the embarrassments 
into which he had purposely led it ; and two days before the 
secession convention met in South Carolina the Secretary of 
War, Floyd, accepted the requisition of that state for her quota 
of United States arms for 1861. Meetings were held all over 
the South where treason was boldly plotted and promulgated, 
and the people were goaded to the adoption of the desperate 
expedients, determined upon by the leaders. The South Caro- 
lina Secession Convention met at Columbia on the seventeenth 
of December, but, on account of the prevalence of the small 
pox there, adjourned to Charleston, where, on the twentieth, 
they formally passed an ordinance of separation, and declared 
"that the Union now (then) subsisting betAveen South Caro- 
lina and other states under the name of the United States of 
America is hereby (was thereby) dissolved." 

The passage of this ordinance filled the Charlestonians with 
delight, and, in the evening, in the presence of an immense 
crowd, the fatal instrument was signed and sealed ; and Gov- 
ernor Pickens immediately issued a proclamation, declaring 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 251 

Soutli Carolina to be "a separate, free, sovereign and inde- 
pendent state." This was followed by the withdrawal of 
Messrs. McQueen, Boyd, Bonham and Ashmore from Con- 
gress, although their resignation was not recognized by the 
speaker, on the ground that such an act would be a recogni- 
tion of the legitimacy of the action of the state. 

Before the adjournment of the Soutli Carolina Convention, 
resolutions were passed calling for a convention of the seceding 
states to be held at Montgomery, Alabama, for the purpose of 
forming a southern confederacy, and providing or siloes t in o- a 
plan of operations and organization. The Congressional con- 
spirators were active in Washington, and in constant com- 
munication with their respective states, urging on the work 
of national disintegration. On the eighth of January a cau- 
cus of southern senators at Washington counseled immediate 
secession; and at the national capital there was no influence 
that could, or would, withstand this reckless and rampant 
treason. As quickly as it could be done consistently with the 
safety of the cause of treason, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, 
Georgia, Louisiana and Texas, followed the lead of South 
Carolina into secession. Forts and arsenals were seized in all 
the seceded states, the steamer Star of the West, sent to 
Charleston with reinforcements and supplies for Major Ander- 
son, was driven out of the harbor, a southern confederacy was 
formed, with Jefferson Davis as president, and thus, by every 
necessary preliminary act, was the most terrible rebellion in- 
augurated that has ever reddened the pages of history. In cab- 
inet meeting, the southern secretaries, still occupying places, 
were boldly demanding that the forts at Charleston should be 
evacuated ; and Mr. Buchanan was too weak to take a posi- 
tion against them. But he had one man in his cabinet who 
was not afraid to speak the truth. Edwin M. Stanton who 
had been called to fill the office of attorney general on the re- 
tirement of Mr. Black, rose and said: "Mr. President, it is 
my duty, as your legal adviser, to say that you have no right 
to give up the property of the government, or abandon the 
soldiers of the United States to its enemies ; and the course 



252 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

proposed by the Secretary of the Interior, if followed, is trea- 
son and will involve you and all concerned in treason." For 
the first time in this cabinet treason had been called by its 
true name, and the men who were leading the President and 
the country to ruin were told to their faces the nature of their 
foul business. Floyd and Thompson, who had had every- 
thing their own way, sprang fiercely to their feet, while Mr. 
Holt, the Postmaster General, took his position by the side 
of Mr. Stanton; and Mr. Buchanan besought them with a 
senile whine to take their seats. Thus bolstered by Mr. 
Stanton the President determined not to withdraw Major An- 
derson. This act of Mr. Stanton was the first in Mr. Bu- 
chanan's administration that seemed to be based on a full 
comprehension of the nature of the situation ; and it was a 
noble introduction to the great work he was destined to ac- 
complish in the suppression of the rebellion. 

These events occurring in rapid succession produced a pro- 
found impression at the North. The Avhole country was filled 
with feverish apprehension. A peace Congress took up its 
abode in Washington, with the notorious John Tyler for 
president. Measures of compromise were introduced into 
Congress and urged with great vigor. Those northern states 
that had passed "personal liberty bills," and other measures 
offensive to the South made haste to repeal them, that all pos- 
sible pretexts for rebellion might be put out of the way. 
Every practicable attempt was made by the fearful and the 
faithless to compel such concessions to the slave power as 
would calm its ire, and obviate the necessity of armed collision. 
There were not wanting men in the. North whose sympathies 
were with the traitors, and who would willingly and gladly 
have joined them in the attempt to revolutionize the govern- 
ment, by preventing Mr. Lincoln from taking his seat, and 
delivering over Washington and the government to the plot- 
ters. Indeed, many of the traitors openly declared that by 
secession they did not mean secession at all, but revolution. 
Commerce and manufactures begged for peace at the slave- 
holder's price, whatever it might be. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 253 

Washington itself was full of treason. It was the prevail- 
ing spirit of all the fashionable life of the national capital. 
All the governmental departments were crowded with it. It 
was the talk of the hotels. Loyalty was snubbed and dis- 
honored. Maryland, though she had passed no ordinance of 
secession, was disloyal. The sympathies of the higher classes 
of Baltimore were all with the traitors. Thus secession was 
an accomplished fact, the forts and arsenals of the United 
States at the South were in the hands of the traitors, the 
northern arsenals were stripped, every available ship with 
the exception of two was beyond call, the confederate govern- 
ment was organized, the United States treasury was bank- 
rupt, the whole South was seething with the excitement of 
treason, disloyalty reigned in every department of the gov- 
ernment, southern sympathizers were scattered over the whole 
JSorth, business was depressed, and a fearful looking-for of 
terrible days and terrible events had taken possession of those 
who still loved the Union, when Mr. Lincoln started on his 
journey to Washington, to assume the office to which he had 
been elected. 

Silently, and with sad forebodings, had he waited in Spring- 
field the opening of the storm. With an intense interest he had 
followed the development of the disunion scheme, and knowing 
the character of the southern leaders he appreciated the des- 
perate nature of the struggle upon which he was entering. 

On the 11th of February, 1861, Mr. Lincoln reluctantly 
bade adieu to the peaceful scenes of home and the grateful 
presence of his best personal friends, for the untried field of 
high official life. That he dreaded the change, and committed 
himself to it with the gravest forebodings, there is no ques- 
tion. Already had the threats of assassination reached his 
ears. It had been widely hinted by his enemies that his in- 
auguration would never be permitted ; and even if it should 
be, he knew that the most oppressive duties awaited him. 

On his departure for the Railroad station, he was accompa- 
nied by a large concourse of his neighbors and friends, the 
most of whom insisted on a parting shake of the hand. After 



254 LIFE OF ABKAIIAM LINCOLN. 

passing through this trial, he appeared upon the platform of 
the car set apart for himself and his family and friends, and 
with the deepest feeling delivered to them his parting words. 

"My friends," said he, "no one not in my position can ap- 
preciate the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I 
owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of 
a century. Here my children were born, and here one of them 
lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. A 
duty devolves upon me which is greater, perhaps, than that 
which has devolved upon any other man since the days of 
Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the 
aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. 
I feel that I cannot succeed without the same divine aid which 
sustained him, and on the same Almighty Being I place my 
reliance for support : and I hope you, my friends, will pray 
that I may receive that divine assistance without which I can- 
not succeed, but with which success is certain. Again, I bid 
you all an affectionate farewell." 

This parting address was telegraphed to every part of the 
country, and was strangely misinterpreted. So little was the 
man's character understood that his simple and earnest request 
that his neighbors should pray for him was received by many 
as an evidence both of his weakness and his hypocrisy. Xo 
President had ever before asked the people, in a public address, 
to pray for him. It sounded like the cant of the conventicle 
to ears unaccustomed to the language of piety from the lips 
of politicians. The request was tossed about as a joke — "old 
Abe's last" — but it came from a heart surcharged with a sense 
of need, and strong in its belief that the Almighty listens to 
the prayers of men. 

Mr. Lincoln had before him, on this, journey, one of the 
most difficult tasks of his life. The country was very anxious 
to get some hint as to his policy. This hint he did not intend 
to friye, until he should be obliged to give it officially. His 
task, then, of talking without saying anything, was not only 
a new one, but it Avas one for which he had no talent. He 
had never acquired, and could never acquire, the faculty of 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 255 

uttering graceful and acceptable nothings. Give him some- 
thing to talk about, and he could talk. Give him a knotty 
point to argue, and he could argue ; but to talk for the mere 
purpose of talk was beyond his power. To talk when it was 
his impulse and his policy to say nothing, was the hardest 
task of his life. Hence, there had never been a passage in 
his life in which he appeared to such a disadvantage as he did 
in the speeches made during this journey. lie could win the 
profoundest admiration of the gifted and the learned at the 
Cooper Institute, but on the platform of a railroad car, or be- 
fore an august committee of city magnates, he was as much 
at a loss as a school-boy would have been. 

Mrs. Lincoln and her three boys were in the car as it rolled 
out of Springfield ; and with them a number of Mr. Lincoln's 
old friends, Governor Yates, Ex-Governor Moore, Dr. ~W. 
M. Wallace, Hon. N. P. Judd, Hon. O. H. Browning, Judo-e 
David Davis and Colonel E. E. Ellsworth were of the num- 
ber, as were also John M. Hay and J. G. Xicolay, afterwards 
Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries. The first point of destina- 
tion was Indianapolis, but Mr. Lincoln was called out at va- 
rious places on the route, to respond to the greetings of the 
crowds that had assembled at the way stations. 

On arriving at Indianapolis, the party found the city en- 
tirely devoted for the time to the pleasant task of giving their 
elected chief magistrate a fitting reception. Business was 
suspended, flags were floating everywhere, and when, at five 
o'clock, the train rolled into the Union depot, a salute of 
thirty-four guns announced them and gave them greeting. 
Governor Morton addressed to Mr. Lincoln an earnest and 
hearty speech of welcome, and then the presidential party 
were escorted through the principal streets by a procession 
composed of both houses of the legislature, the municipal 
authorities, and the military and firemen. Arriving at the 
Bates House, Mr. Lincoln was called for, when he appeared, 
and made the following brief address : 

"Fellow citizens of the State of Indiana: I am here to thank you much 
for this magnificent welcome, and still more for the very generous support 



256 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

given by your state to that political cause, which. I think is the true and 
just cause of the -whole country and the whole world. Solomon says 
'there is a time to keep silence;' and when men wrangle by the mouth, 
with no certainty that they mean the same thing while using the same 
words, it perhaps were as well if they would keep silence. The words 
'coercion' and 'invasion' are much used in these days, and often with 
some temper and hot blood. Let us make sure, if we can, that we do 
not misunderstand the meaning of those who use them. Let us get the 
exact definitions of these words, not from dictionaries, but from the men 
themselves, who certainly deprecate the things they would represent by 
the use of the words. What, then, is 'coercion?' What is 'invasion?' 
Would the marching of an army into South Carolina, without the con- 
sent of her people, and with hostile intent towards them, be invasion ? 
I certainly think it would, and it would be 'coercion' also if the South- 
Carolinians were forced to submit. But if the United States should 
merely hold and retake its own forts and other property, and collect the 
duties on foreign importations, or even withhold the mails from places 
where they were habitually violated, would any or all of these things 
be 'invasion' or 'coercion?' Do our professed lovers of the Union, 
who spitefully resolve that they will resist coercion and invasion, under- 
stand that such things as these, on the part of the United States, would 
be coercion or invasion of a state ? If so, their idea of means to pre- 
serve the object of their great affection would seem to be exceedingly 
thin and airy. If sick, the little pills of the homceopathist would be 
much too large for it to swallow. In their view, the Union, as a family 
relation, would seem to be no regular marriage, but rather a sort of 
'free-love' arrangement, to be maintained on passional attraction. By 
the way, in what consists the special sacredness of a state ? I speak 
not of the position assigned to a state in the Union by the Constitution, 
for that is the bond we all recognize. That position, however, a state 
cannot carry out of the Union with it. I speak of that assumed prima- 
ry right of a state to rule all which is less than itself, and to ruin all 
which is larger than itself. If a state and a county, in a given case, 
should be equal in extent of territory and equal in number of inhabi- 
tants, in what, as a matter of principle, is the state better than the 
county? Would an exchange of name be an exchange of rights? 
Upon what principle, upon what rightful principle, may a state, being 
no more than one-fiftieth part of the nation in soil and population, 
break up the nation, and then coerce a proportionably larger subdivis- 
ion of itself in the most arbitrary way ? What mysterious right to 
play tyrant is conferred on a district of country with its people, by 
merely calling it a state ? Fellow-citizens, I am not asserting any thing. 
I am merely asking questions for you to consider. And now allow me 
to bid you farewell." 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 257 

The unwillingness of Mr. Lincoln to speak on public ques- 
tions at this time is evident enough from these remarks ; but 
he could not resist the inclination to expose some of his ideas, 
touching certain words which were then in circulation, and 
they undoubtedly conveyed hints concerning his policy. 

On the following day, Mr. Lincoln and his party started by 
a special train for Cincinnati. An immense crowd assembled, 
and cheered them as they moved oft'. The train was composed 
of four passenger cars, the third and fourth of which were 
occupied by the Cincinnati committee of reception, who greeted 
Mr. Lincoln at once — Judge Este on behalf of the citizens, 
and Major Dennis J. Yoohey on behalf of the Board of Com- 
mon Council. Mr. Lincoln responded briefly. The first stop 
was at Shelbyville, where Mr. Lincoln was obliged to show 
himself to the enthusiastic assemblage, though, from the brev- 
ity of the stop, he could say nothing. At Greensburgh and 
Lawrenceburgh Mr. Lincoln made brief remarks to the 
crowds that had assembled. The wisest and most character- 
istic thing that he uttered at the latter place was in these 
words : "Let me tell you that if the people remain right, your 
public men can never betray you. If, in my brief term of 
office, I shall be wicked or foolish, if you remain right and 
true and honest you cannot be betrayed. My power is tem- 
porary and fleeting — yours as eternal as the principles of lib- 
erty. Cultivate and protect that sentiment, and your ambi- 
tious leaders will be reduced to the position of servants." 

The train passed by the burial place of General Harrison 
who had occupied briefly the presidential chair, and here the 
family of the deceased patriot were assembled. Mr. Lincoln 
bowed his respects to the group and to the memory of his 
predecessor. 

The twelfth day of February was remarkably sunny and 
cheerful, and a large concourse of citizens had assembled to 
give Mr. Lincoln greeting and to catch a glimpse of his face. 
All the streets leading to the railroad depot were thronged 
with people ; and the windows and roofs and every perch from 
which a lookout could be obtained were occupied. It took a 
17 



258 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

laro-e force of military and police to keep the way clear. A 
distant cannon announced the approach of the train, and then 
there went up from the multitude such a cheer as such a mul- 
titude alone can give. After some difficulty the party reached 
their carriages, and then the crowd went wild with enthusi- 
asm, cheering the President and the Union, Mr. Lincoln rising 
in the carriage with uncovered head, and acknowledging the 
oreetino-s that met him at every crossing. Mr. Lincoln's car- 
riage was drawn by six white horses, and was surrounded by 
a detachment of police to keep off the crowd. Mayor Bishop 
occupied a seat by his side. All along the route of the pro- 
cession houses were decorated with the national colors, and 
various devices for expressing personal and patriotic feeling. 
The Court House, Custom House, Catholic Institute, city 
buildings, newspaper offices, hotels, &c, were all gaily decor- 
ated. Banners, transparencies and patriotic emblems and 
mottoes were everywhere. At the Orphan Asylum, all the 
children came out and sang " Hail Columbia." Some inci- 
dents occurred that created special and peculiar interest, and 
some that excitf d no little amusement. A brawny German 
took a little girl in his arms, and carried her to the carriage, 
when she modestly presented to the President a single flow- 
er, which compliment he acknowledged by stooping and kiss- 
inp- the child. It was a small incident — a very pretty in- 
cident — but incidents like these depend for their effect upon 
the susceptibilities of the observers ; and many of the excited 
multitude were touched to tears. One German devised a 
characteristic compliment. He took a seat upon a huge beer 
barrel, and, with a glass of its contents in his hand, addressed 
the President thus : "God be with you! Enforce the laws 
and save our country! Here's your health!" From the 
depot to the Burnet House, he rode through a dense mass of 
men, women and children, who took every mode of expressing 
their enthusiastic good will. It would have been impossible 
for Cincinnati to do more to receive an emperor or reward a 
conqueror. 

The Burnet House was reached at five o'clock, and soon 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 259 

afterwards Mr. Lincoln appeared upon the balcony. Mayor 
Bishop introduced him to the people and gave him a formal 
welcome "in the name of the people of all classes." Mr. 
Lincoln then replied : 

"Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen: Twenty-four hours ago, at the 
Capital of Indiana, 1 said to myself, 'I have never seen so many people 
assembled together in winter weather.' I am no longer able to say that. 
But it is what might reasonably have been expected — that this great 
city of Cincinnati would thus acquit herself on such an occasion. My 
friends, I am entirely overwhelmed by the magnificence of the reception 
which has been given, I will not say to me, but to the President elect 
of the United States of America. Most heartily do I thank you one 
and all for it. I am reminded by the address of your worthy Mayor, 
that this reception is given not by one political party; and even if 1 had 
not been so reminded by His Honor, I could not have failed to know 
the fact by the extent of the multitude I see before me now. I could 
not look upon this vast assemblage without being made aware that all 
parties were united in this reception. This is as it should be. It is as 
it should have been if Senator Douglas had been elected; it is as it 
should have been if Mr. Bell had been elected; as it should have been 
if Mr. Breckinridge had been elected; as it should ever be when any 
citizen of the United States is constitutionally elected President of the 
United States. Allow me to say that I think what has occurred here 
to-day could not have occurred in any other country on the face of the 
globe, without the influence of the free institutions which we have un- 
ceasingly enjoyed for three-quarters of a century. There is no country 
where the people can turn out and enjoy this day precisely as they 
please, save under the benign influence of the free institutions of our 
land. I hope that, although we have some threatening national difficul- 
ties now, while these free institutions shall continue to be in the enjoy- 
ment of millions of free people of the United States, we will see re- 
peated every four years what we now witness. In a few short years I 
and every other individual man who is now living will pass away. I 
hope that our national difficulties will also pass away, and I hope Ave 
shall see in the streets of Cincinnati — good old Cincinnati — for centuries 
to come, once every four years, the people give such a reception as this 
to the constitutionally elected President of the whole United States. 
I hope you will all join in that reception, and that you shall also welcome 
your brethren across the river to participate in it. We will welcome 
them in every state in the Union, no matter where they are from. From 
away South, we shall extend to them a cordial good will, when our pres- 
ent differences shall have been forgotten and blown to the winds forever. 



260 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

''I have spoken but once before this in Cincinnati. That was a year 
previous to the late presidential election. On that occasion, in a playful 
manner but with sincere words, I addressed much of what I said to the 
Kentuckians. I gave my opinion that we as republicans would ulti- 
mately beat them as democrats, but that they could postpone that result 
longer by nominating Senator Douglas for the presidency than they 
could in any other way. They did not in the true sense of the word 
nominate Douglas, and the result has come certainly as soon as I ex- 
pected. I also told them how I expected they would be treated after 
they should have been beaten; and I now wish to call or recall their 
attention to what I then said upon that subject. 1 then said; > When 
we do, as we say, beat you, you perhaps will want to know what we 
will do with you. We mean to treat you as near as we possibly can as 
Washington, Jefferson and Madison treated you. We mean to leave 
you alone and in no way to interfere with your institutions, to abide by 
all and every compromise of the Constitution ; and, in a word, coming 
back to the original proposition to treat you as far as degenerate men, 
if we have degenerated, may, according to the examples of those noble 
fathers Washington, Jefferson and Madison. AVe mean to remember 
that you are as good as we— that there is no difference between us— 
other than the difference of circumstances. We mean to recognize and 
bear in mind always that you have as good hearts in your bosoms as 
other people, or as good as we claim to have, and treat you accordingly.' 
"Fellow-citizens of Kentucky, Friends, Brethren: May 1 call you 
such ? In my new position I see no occasion and feel no inclination to 
retract a word of this. If it shall not be made good, be assured that 
the fault shall not be mine." 

This little speech, remarkable for nothing so much as its 
thoroughly friendly feeling toward all classes and men of all 
opinions, was received with warm approval. Subsequently 
he was called upon by a procession of two thousand Germans, 
who, in their formal address, indicated a desire for some utter- 
ance touching his public policy. In his response,- Mr. Lincoln 
begged to be excused from entering upon such an exposition. 
"I deem it due to myself and the whole country," said Mr. 
Lincoln, " in the present extraordinary condition of the country 
and of public opinion, that I should wait and see the last de- 
velopment of public opinion before I give my views, or ex- 
press myself at the time of the inauguration. I hope at that 
time to be false to nothing you have been taught to expect of 
me." 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 261 

On the morning of the thirteenth, the party started for 
Columbus, the capital of Ohio. The scenes of the previous 
day Avere repeated on the route, in the gathering of large 
crowds at all the intermediate stations. The reception in Co- 
lumbus had been a fortnight in preparation, the legislature 
taking the initiative. At noon, on the thirteenth, it was cal- 
culated that five thousand strangers were in the city. As the 
time approached for the arrival of the train, the crowd around 
the depot became almost overwhelming. A thirty-four-gun 
salute announced the coming train, and as it drove slowly into 
the depot, the crowd called upon the President elect to show 
himself. He stepped out upon the platform of the rear car, 
and with head uncovered bowed his acknowledgments to the 
hearty greeting he received. On alighting and entering a 
carriage for the passage to the State House, the scenes at 
Cincinnati were re-enacted. Streets were full of people, the 
air was ringing with shouts and huzzas, and the same kind 
sun smiled upon all. He was received in the hall of the 
House of Representatives, and Governor Dennison introduced 
him to the Legislature. The President of the Senate responded 
in a speech of welcome which so concisely and happily con- 
veyed the feelings of the people at that time, and so justly 
measured the nature and importance of the crisis, that it de- 
serves record. He addressed Mr. Lincoln in the following 
words : 

"Sir: On this day, and probably this very hour, the Congress of 
the United States will declare the verdict of the people, making you 
their President. It is my pleasurable duty, in behalf of the people of 
Ohio, speaking through this General Assembly, to welcome you to their 
Capital. Never in the history of this Government has such fearful re- 
sponsibility rested upon the Chief Executive of the nation as will now 
devolve upon you. Never since the memorable time our patriotic fa- 
thers gave existence to the American Republic, have the people looked 
with such intensity of feeling to the inauguration and future policy of 
a President, as they do to yours. I need not assure you that the people 
of Ohio have full confidence in your ability and patriotism, and will re- 
spond to you in their loyalty to the Union and the Constitution. It 
would seem, sir, that the great problem of self-government is to be 
solved under your administration. All nations are deeply interested in 



262 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

its solution, and they wait with breathless anxiety to know whether 
this form of government, which has been the admiration of the world, 
is to be a failure or not. It is the earnest and united prayer of our 
people, that the same kind Providence which protected us in our colonial 
struggles, and has attended us thus far in our prosperity and greatness, 
will so imbue your mind with wisdom, that you may dispel the dark 
clouds that hang over our political horizon, and thereby secure the re- 
turn of harmony and fraternal feeling to our now distracted and un- 
happy country. Again I bid you a cordial welcome to our Capital." 

To this noble greeting Mr. Lincoln responded as follows: 

" Gentlemen of the Senate and Citizens of Ohio: It is true, as has 
been said by the President of the Senate, that very great responsibility 
rests upon me in the position to which the votes of the American people 
have called me. I am deeply sensible of that weighty responsibility. 
I cannot but know, what you all know, that without a name — perhaps 
without a reason why I should have a name — there has fallen upon me 
a task such as did not rest upon the Father of his Country. And so 
feeling I cannot but turn and look for the support without which it will 
be impossible for me to perform that great task. I turn, then, and look 
to the American people, and to that God who has never forsaken them. 

" Allusion has been made to the interest felt in relation to the policy 
of the new administration. In this I have received from some a degree 
of credit for having kept silence, from others some depreciation. I still 
think I was right. In the varying and repeatedly shifting scenes of the 
present, without a precedent which could enable me to judge from the 
past, it has seemed fitting that before speaking upon the difficulties of 
the country I should have gained a view of the whole field. To be 
sure, after all, I would be at liberty to modify and change the course of 
policy, as future events might make a change necessary. 

" I have not maintained silence from any want of real anxiety. It is 
a good thing that there is no more than anxiety, for there is nothing 
going wrong. It is a consoling circumstance that when we look out 
there is nothing that really hurts anybody. We entertain different 
views upon political questions, but nobody is suffering anything. This 
is a most consoling circumstance, and from it I judge that all we want 
is time and patience, and a reliance on that God who has never forsaken 
this people." 

The reporter for the Ohio State Journal, describing the in- 
cidents of the day, says that the impression produced by the 
President elect was most agreeable. "His great hight," he 
continues, "was conspicuous, even in that crowd of goodly 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 263 

men, and lifted him fully in view as he walked up the aisle. 
"When he took the speaker's stand, a better opportunity was 
afforded to look at the man upon whom more hopes hang than 
upon any other living. At first, the kindness and amiability 
of his face strikes you; but as he speaks, the greatness and 
determination of his nature are apparent. Something in his 
manner, even more than in his words, told how deeply he was 
affected by the enthusiasm of the people; and when he ap- 
pealed to them for encouragement and support, every heart 
responded with mute assurance of both. There was the sim- 
plicity of greatness in his unassuming and confiding manner, 
that won its way to instant admiration. He looked somewhat 
worn with travel and the fatigues of popularity, but warmed 
to the cordiality of his reception." 

After the conclusion of the formalities in the hall, Mr. Lin- 
coln went to the western steps of the Capitol, to say a word 
to the people. The address he made here consisted simply 
of commonplaces and phrases that had already become hack- 
neyed. The hand-shaking that succeeded was something 
fearful. Every man in the crowd was anxious to wrench the 
hand of Abraham Lincoln. He finally gave both hands to 
the work, with great good nature. To quote one of the re- 
ports of the occasion: "people plunged at his arms with frantic 
enthusiasm, and all the infinite variety of shakes, from the wild 
and irrepressible pump-handle movement, to the dead grip, was 
executed upon the devoted dexter and sinister of the President. 
Some glanced at his face as they grasped his hand; others in- 
voked the blessings of Heaven upon him ; others affectionately 
gave him their last gasping assurance of devotion; others, 
bewildered and furious, with hats crushed over their eyes, 
seized his hands in a convulsive grasp, and passed on as 
if they had not the remotest idea who, what, or where they 
were." The President at last escaped, and took refuge in the 
Governor's residence, although he held a levee at the State 
House in the evening, where, in a more quiet way, he met 
many prominent citizens. 

On the fourteenth, the presidential party left Columbus, for 



2G4 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIlNXOLtf. 

Pittsburgh. The morning was rainy, but large numbers wit- 
nessed the departure of the train, and assembled at the sta- 
tions along the route. At Steubenville, about five thousand 
people had assembled, and these Mr. Lincoln briefly addressed. 
The rain interfered very materially with the proposed recep- 
tion at Pittsburgh, as did also the darkness, for it was night 
when the party arrived. At the Monongahela House, Mr. 
Lincoln addressed a large concourse of people in a few 
words of acknowledgment, and deferred his more formal re- 
marks until the morning of the fifteenth. These latter were 
not charged with particular interest. They were rather an 
apology for not speaking at all, upon the great subject of 
which all wished to hear, than any exposition of opinion or 
policy upon any subject. A single paragraph showed that, he 
still deemed a peaceful solution of the national difficulties 
possible : 

"Notwithstanding the troubles across the river, there is really no crisis 
springing from anything in the Government itself. In plain words, 
there is really no crisis except an artificial one. What is there now to 
warrant the condition of affairs presented by our friends 'over the riv- 
er?' Take even their own view of the questions involved, and there is 
nothing to justify the course which they are pursuing. I repeat it, 
then, there is no crisis, except such a one as may be gotten up at any 
time by turbulent men, aided by designing politicians. My advice, 
then, under such circumstances, is to keep cool. If the great American 
people will only keep their temper on both sides of the line, the trouble 
will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country 
will be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like character 
which have originated in this Government have been adjusted. Let the 
people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds 
have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation shall 
continue to prosper as heretofore." 

The next place at which he was to be received was Cleve- 
land, Ohio ; and the party set out for this beautiful city in a 
hard shower of rain, that had not the power to dampen the 
enthusiasm of the Pittsburgh people who cheered their de- 
parting guests with great heartiness. There were the usual 
incidents along the road, and at four o'clock the train arrived 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 265 

at the Euclid Street Station of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh 
Railroad, where a very large escort waited to conduct Mr. 
Lincoln to the Weddell House. The President took his seat 
in a carriage drawn by four white horses. Notwithstanding 
the unpleasantness of the weather, Euclid Street was crowded 
from one end to the other, with persons who acted almost like 
wild men, in their anxiety to catch a glimpse of the President. 
Mr. I. U. Masters, the President of the City Council, made a 
formal speech of welcome, and was followed by Hon. Sherlock 
G. Andrews, who welcomed the guest of the occasion on be- 
half of the citizens' committee. Here, in his response, Mr. 
Lincoln repeated the substance of the remarks he made at 
Pittsburgh about the artificial nature of the crisis that was 
upon the country. "It was not argued up," he said, "and 
cannot, therefore, be argued down. Let it alone and it will 
go down of itself." In these remarks, and in all like these, 
he must have taken counsel of his hopes rather than his con- 
victions ; for in the same speech, while alluding to the grate- 
ful fact that his reception was by the citizens generally, with- 
out distinction of party, he said : " If all don't join now to save 
the good old ship of the Union this voyage, nobody will have 
a chance to pilot her on another voyage." There was a gen- 
eral reception and hand-shaking in the evening, and after the 
distinguished guest had become too tired for further honors, 
he was permitted to retire for the night. 

Early the next morning the party took their leave, but they 
found many up and ready to get a parting glance of Mr. 
Lincoln, who, taking his seat in the rear ear, appeared upon 
the platform as the train moved out of the depot, and bowed 
his farewell to the people who had so generously and cordially 
received him. His next public reception was at Buffalo, 
where he arrived late in the afternoon of the sixteenth, having 
received all along the route those testimonials of interest which 
had come to be as wearisome at last, as they were grateful at 
the first. On the arrival of the train at Buffalo, Mr. Lincoln 
was met by a very large concourse of citizens, with Ex-Presi- 
dent Fillmore at their head. After beino; conducted to his 



266 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

hotel, the acting mayor gave him a formal welcome, to •which 
Mr. Lincoln responded with hearty thanks, and such phrases 
of apology for not saying anything as had already become 
threadbare, and with his often repeated promise to say what 
the people wished to hear, when he should be called upon to 
do it officially. 

From Buffalo, Mr. Lincoln and his party proceeded to Al- 
bany, receiving many demonstrations of respect from the 
beautiful cities along the route of three hundred miles. At 
Albany he was welcomed by Governor Morgan, to whom lie 
made a brief response ; and then he was conducted into the 
presence of the legislature, where he had another formal re- 
ception. To the speech addressed to him here, he made an 
unusually graceful and feeling response. He said : 

" It is with feelings of great diffidence, and, I may say, feelings even 
of awe, perhaps greater than I have recently experienced, that I meet 
you here in this place. The history of this great state, the renown of 
its great men, who have stood in this chamber, and have .spoken their 
thoughts, all crowd around my fancy, and incline me to shrink from an 
attempt to address you. Yet I have some confidence given me by the 
generous manner in which you have invited me, and the still more gen- 
erous manner in which you have received me. You have invited me 
and received me without distinction of party. I could not for a moment 
suppose that this has been done in any considerable degree Avith any 
reference to my personal self. It is very much more grateful to me 
that this reception and the invitation preceding it were given to me as 
the representative of a free people than it could possibly have been 
were they but the evidence of devotion to me or to any one man. 

"It is true that, while I hold myself, without mock-modesty, the hum- 
blest of all the individuals who have ever been elected President of the 
United States, I yet have a more difficult task to perform than any one 
of them has ever encountered. You have here generously tendered me 
the support, the united support, of the great Empire State. For this, 
in behalf of the nation— in behalf of the present and of the future of 
the nation— in behalf of the cause of civil liberty in all time to come— 
I most gratefully thank you. I do not propose now to enter upon any 
expressions as to the particular line of policy to be adopted with refer- 
ence to the difficulties that stand before us, in the opening of the incom- 
ing administration. I deem that it is just to the country, to myself, to 
you, that I should see everything, hear everything, and have every light 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 2G7 

that can possibly be brought within my reach to aid me before I shall 
speak officially, in order that, when 1 do speak, I may have the best 
possible means of taking correct and true grounds. For this reason, I 
do not now announce anything in the way of policy for the new admin- 
istration. "When the time comes, according to the custom of the gov- 
ernment, I shall speak, and speak as well as I am able for the good of 
the present and of the future of this country— for the good of the North 
and of the South— for the good of one and of the other, and of all sec- 
tions of it. In the meantime, if we have patience, if we maintain our 
equanimity, though some may allow themselves to run off in a burst of 
passion, I still have confidence that the Almighty Ruler of the universe, 
through the instrumentality of this great and intelligent people, can 
and will bring us through this difficulty, as he has heretofore brought 
us through all preceding difficulties of the country. Relying upon this, 
and again thanking you, as I forever shall, in my heart, for this gener- 
ous reception you have given me, I bid you farewell."' 

Mr. Lincoln was met at Albany by a .delegation of the city 
government of New York, and started on the nineteenth for 
the great metropolis. He was not permitted to pass by 
Poughkeepsie without a formal welcome from the mayor of 
that city, to which he made a formal response. In this little 
speech there is a manifest improvement upon the earlier efforts 
of the route. Mr. Lincoln had found that there were things 
to talk about besides policy, and that it was better to yield 
himself up to the impulse of the moment than to be under 
the constant fear of saying some imprudent thing, concerning 
the character of the crisis and the policy of the incoming ad- 
ministration. 

The reception at the city of New York was such as only 
New York can give. Places of business were generally closed, 
and the streets presented such crowds as only a city number- 
ing a million of people can produce. Here he was formally 
received by Fernando Wood, then mayor of the city, to whose 
welcome he made the following response : 

"Mr. Mayor: — It is with feelings of deep gratitude that I make my 
acknowledgments for the reception given me in the great commercial 
city of New York. I cannot but remember that this is done by a peo- 
ple who do not, by a majority, agree with me in political sentiment. It 
is the more grateful, because in this I see that, for the great principles 



268 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of our Government, the people are almost unanimous. In regard to 
the difficulties that confront us at this time, and of which your Honor 
has thought fit to speak so becomingly and so justly, as I suppose, I 
can only say that I agree in the sentiments expressed. In my devotion 
to the Union, I hope I am behind no man in the nation. In the wisdom 
with which to conduct the affairs tending to the preservation of the 
Union, I fear that too great confidence may have been reposed in me; 
but I am sure that I bring a heart devoted to the work. There is noth- 
ing that could ever bring me to willingly consent to the destruction of 
this Union, under which not only the great commercial city of New 
York, but the whole country, acquired its greatness, except it be the 
purpose for which the Union itself was formed. I understand the ship 
to be made for the carrying and the preservation of the cargo, and so 
long as the ship can be saved with the cargo, it should never be aban- 
doned, unless there appears no possibility of its preservation, and it 
must cease to exist, except at the risk of throwing overboard both 
freight and passengers. So long, then, as it is possible that the pros- 
perity and the liberties of the people be preserved in this Union, it shall 
be my purpose at all times to use all my powers to aid in its perpetua- 
tion." 

On the twentieth, Mr. Lincoln left New York for Philadel- 
phia, visiting on the way both Houses of the New Jersey Leg- 
islature at Trenton. From the speech made before the Senate 
on this occasion, a quotation has been made in this volume, 
and the entire passage is worthy of record: 

"I cannot but remember the place that New Jersey holds in our early 
history. In the early Revolutionary struggle, few of the states among 
the old thirteen had more of the battle-fields of the country within its 
limits than old New Jersey. May I be pardoned, if, upon this occasion, 
I mention, that away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my be- 
ing able to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the 
younger members have ever seen, 'TVecms' Life of Washington.' I 
remember all the accounts there given of the battle-fields and struggles 
for the liberties of the country, and none fixed themselves upon my im- 
agination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. The 
crossing of the river — the contest with the Hessians — the great hard- 
ships endured at that time — all fixed themselves on my memory more 
than any single revolutionary event; and you all know, for you have all 
been boys, how these early impressions last longer than any others. I 
recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have 
been something more than common that those men struggled for. I 
am exceedingly anxious that that thing which they struggled for — that 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



269 



something even more than National Independence — that sometlnK that 
held out a great promise to all the people of the Avoiid to all tim to 
come — 1 am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, am 
the liberties of the people, shall be perpetuated in accordance with the 
original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most 
happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the 
Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the 
object of that great struggle." 

At Philadelphia Mr. Lincoln was received with great en- 
thusiasm, and many demonstrations of popular regard. His 
formal welcome was given by the mayor of the city, but there 
was nothing in his response that calls for reproduction, except 
a single passage in which he hints at the possibility that he 
may never be permitted to take the presidential chair. Al- 
luding to the popular desire to learn something definite con- 
cerning his policy, he said, "It were useless for me to speak 
of details of plans now ; I shall speak officially next Monday 
week, if ever. If I should not speak then, it were useless for 
me to do so now." 

He had been aware, ever since he left Springfield, that men 
were seeking for his life. An attempt was made to throw the 
train off the track that bore him out of Springfield; and at 
Cincinnati a hand grenade was found concealed upon the train. 
The fear excited by these hostile demonstrations was an in- 
definite one, but on his arrival at Philadelphia the plot was all 
unfolded to him. 

Before Mr. Lincoln left home it was whispered about that 
he would never be permitted to pass through Baltimore alive ; 
and a detective of great experience and skill was put to the 
task of ferreting out the conspiracy. He employed both men 
and women to assist him, and found that a conspiracy was in- 
deed in existence, with an Italian refugee, a barber, at the 
head of it, who, assuming the name of "Orsini," indicated 
the part he expected to play in the plot.* 

It was arranged, in case Mr. Lincoln should reach Balti- 
more safely, that, on a given signal, he should be shot by those 

*For all the particulars of this attempt upon Mr. Lincoln's life the 
author is indebted to an article in the Albany Evening Journal. 



270 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

who .should gather in the guise of friends around his carriage, 
ar>d that hand grenades should complete the work of destruc- 
tion which the pistol had commenced. In the confusion thus 
produced, the guilty parties proposed to escape to a vessel in 
waiting, which would convey them to Mobile. 

The detective and Mr. Lincoln reached Philadelphia nearly 
at the same time, and there the former submitted to a feAV of 
the President's friends the information he had secured. An 
interview between Mr. Lincoln and the detective was immedi- 
ately arranged, which took place in the apartnlents of the 
former at the Continental Hotel. Mr. Lincoln having heard 
the officer's statement in detail, then informed him that he had 
promised to raise the American flag on Independence Hall the 
folio win o- morning — the morning of the anniversary of Wash- 
ington's birthday — and that he had accepted an invitation to 
a reception by the Pennsylvania legislature in the afternoon 
of the same day. "Both of these engagements I will keep," 
said Mr. Lincoln, "if it costs me my life." For the rest, he 
authorized the detective to make such arrangements as he 
thought proper for his safe conduct to Washington. 

In the meantime, General Scott and Senator Seward, both 
of whom were in Washington, learned from independent 
sources that Mr. Lincoln's life was in danger, and concurred 
in sending Mr. Frederick W. Seward to Philadelphia, to urge 
upon him the necessity of proceeding immediately to Wash- 
ington in a quiet way. The messenger arrived late on Thurs- 
day night, after Mr. Lincoln had retired, and requested an 
audience. Mr. Lincoln's fears had already been aroused, and 
he was cautious, of course, in the matter of receiving a stran- 
ger. But satisfied that the messenger was indeed the son of 
Mr. Seward, he gave him audience. Nothing needed to be 
done, but to inform him of the plan entered into with the de- 
tective by which the President was to arrive in Washington 
early on Saturday morning, in advance of his family and party. 
This information was conveyed to Mr. Washburne of Illinois, 
among others, on Mr. Seward's return to Washington ; and he 
was deputed to receive Mr. Lincoln at the depot on his arrival. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 271 

Such were the exciting events and disclosures of the day 
and night preceding Mr. Lincoln's appearance at Independ- 
ence Hall, where he was formally received, and where he 
made the following address, one passage of which bears the 
burden of his apprehension: 

"I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here, in 
this place, where were collected the wisdom, the patriotism, the devo- 
tion to principle, from which sprang the institutions under which we 
live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task of 
restoring peace to the present distracted condition of the country. I 
can say in return^ sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have 
been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the senti- 
ments which originated and were given to the world from this hall. 1 
have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the senti- 
ments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often 
pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assem- 
bled here, and framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. 
I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and 
soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. I have often in- 
quired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this 
Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the sep- 
aration of the colonies from the mother-land, but that sentiment in the 
Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people 
of this country, but, I hope, to the world for all future time. It was 
that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted 
from the shoulders of all men. This is a sentiment embodied in the 
Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be 
saved upon this basis ? If it can, I will consider myself one of the hap- 
piest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved 
upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country cannot 
be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would 
rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it. Now, in my view 
of the present aspect of affairs, there need be no bloodshed or Avar. 
There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course; and I 
may say, in advance, that there will be no bloodshed unless it be forced 
upon the Government, and then it will be compelled to act in self-de- 
fense." 

At the conclusion of this speech, Mr. Lincoln was conducted 
to a platform outside, where he was publicly invited to raise 
the new flag. In responding to this invitation, he addressed 
a few words to the people, and then ran the flag up to the top 



272 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of the staff ; amid the cheers of a vast concourse of people. 
The ceremony was alike impressive to the principal actor and 
the multitude of observers. The great battles of Mr. Lin- 
coln's life had been done for the principles of the Declaration 
of Independence. It Avas because he represented those princi- 
ples, distinctively, that he had been elected to the presidency, 
that the slave-power was in active revolt, and that the friends 
of slavery were seeking for his life. It was certainly a re- 
markable occasion when he stood within the room where the 
Declaration was framed and signed, and pledged himself anew 
to its truths and principles, and then walked out into the pres- 
ence of the people and ran up to its home the beautiful na- 
tional ensign prepared for his hands. 

At the conclusion of these ceremonies, Mr. Lincoln and his 
party left the city for Harrisburg, the capital of the state, 
where, in accordance with his promise, he visited both branches 
of the Pennsylvania legislature. The following were the more 
important passages in his response to the address of welcome : 

" I thank you most sincerely for this reception, and the generous words 
in which support has been promised me upon this occasion. I thank 
your great Commonwealth for the overwhelming support it recently 
gave, not to me personally, but the cause, which I think a just one, in 
the late election. Allusion has been made to the fact — the interesting 
fact, perhaps we should say— that I, for the first time, appear at the 
capital of the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania upon the birthday 
of the Father of his Country, in connection with that beloved anniver- 
sary connected with the history of this country. I have already gone 
through one exceedingly interesting scene this morning in the ceremo- 
nies at Philadelphia. Under the high conduct of gentlemen there, I 
was, for the first time, allowed the privilege of standing in Old Inde- 
pendence Hall, to have a few words addressed to me there, and opening 
up an opportunity of saying, with much regret, that I had not more 
time to express something of my own feelings, excited by the occasion- 
somewhat to harmonize and give shape to the feelings that had been 
ready the feelings of my whole life. 

"Besides this, our friends there had provided a magnificent flag ot 
the country. They had arranged it so that I was given the honor of 
*akmg it to the head of its staff. And when it went up I was pleased 
that it went to its place by the strength of my own feeble arm; when, 
recording to the arrangement, the cord was pulled, and it flaunted 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 273 

gloriously to the wind without an accident, in the bright glowing sun- 
shine of th>' morning, I could not help Imping that there was in t lie en- 
tire success of that beautiful ceremony at least something of an omen 
of what is to come, i^or could I help feeling then, as I often have felt, 
that in the whole of that proceeding I was a very humble instrument. I 
had not provided the Hag; Iliad not made the arrangements for eleva- 
ting it to its place. I had applied but a very small portion of my feeble 
strength in raising it. In the whole transaction I was in the hands of 
the people who bad arranged it; and if I can have the same v;enerous 
co-operation of the people of the nation, I think the flag of our country 
may yet be kept flaunting gloriously. 

"I recur for a moment to some words uttered at the hotel in regard to 
what has been said about the military support which the general gov- 
ernment may expect from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in a 
proper emergency. To guard against any possible mistake do I recur 
to this. It is not with any pleasure that I contemplate the possibility 
that a necessity may arise in this country for the use of the military 
arm. While I am exceedingly gratified to see the manifestation upon 
your streets of your military force here, and exceedingly gratified at 
your promise here to use that force upon a proper emergency — while I 
make these acknowledgments, I desire to repeat, in order to preclude 
any possible misconstruction, that I do most sincerely hope that we 
shall have no use for them; that it will never become their duty to shed 
blood, and most especially never to shed fraternal blood. I promise 
that, so far as I may have wisdom to direct, if so painful a result shall 
in any wise be brought about, it shall be through no fault of mine." 

It is proper to call renewed attention here to Mr. Lincoln's 
strong and ever present conviction that he was only a humble 
instrument in the hands of a higher power. He recognized 
the people as one of the higher powers which held him in 
service, and his illustration of his position, drawn from his 
office in raising the flag over Independence Hall, was ex-7 
tremely beautiful. We shall find this conviction deepening 
throughout the remainder of his life — the conviction that he 
was nothing — that he was of no consequence — save as an in- 
strument, and that he had no rights and no mission except 
those which were deputed to him. 

At the conclusion of the exercises of the day, Mr. Lincoln, 
who was known to be very weary, was permitted to pass un- 
disturbed to his apartments in the Jones House. It was 
18 



274 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

popularly understood that lie was to start for Washington 
the next morning ; and the people of Harrisburg supposed 
they had taken only a temporary leave of him. He remained 
In his rooms until nearly six o'clock, when he passed into the 
street, entered a carriage unobserved, in company with Colonel 
Lamon, and Was 'driven to a special train on the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, in waiting for him. As a measure of precaution, 
the telegraph wires were cut the moment he left Harrisburgh, 
so that, if his departure should be discovered, intelligence of 
it could not be communicated at a distance. At half past 
ten, the train arrived at Philadelphia, and here Mr. Lincoln 
was met by the detective, who had a carriage in readiness, in 
which the party were driven to the depot of the Philadelphia, 
Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. At a quarter past eleven 
they arrived, and, very fortunately, found the regular train, 
which should have left at eleven, delayed. The party took 
berths in the sleeping car, and, without change of cars, passed 
directly through Baltimore to Washington, Avhere Mr. Lin- 
coln arrived at half past six o'clock in the* morning, and 
found Mr. Washburne anxiously awaiting him. He was taken 
into a carriage, and in a few minutes he was talking over his 
adventures, with Senator Seward at Willard's Hotel. 

Mr. Lincoln's family left Harrisburgh on the special train 
that had been intended for him, and as news of his safe arrival 
in Washington was already telegraphed over the country, no 
disturbance was made by the passage of the party through 
Baltimore. It was found that the number of original con- 
spirators was about twenty, all of whose names were in pos- 
session of responsible parties. It was a bold plot, ingeniously 
foiled ; but the detective through Avhose means the President's 
life had been saved, was not considered safe in Washington, 
and after a day or two was sent away. It should be added 
that the current story that Mr. Lincoln passed through Bal- 
timore disguised in a "long military cloak and Scotch cap," 
is a pure fabrication, written by a man who hated Mr. Lincoln, 
and knew absolutely nothing of the event of which he wrote. 
Mr. Lincoln did not find it necessary to adopt any disguise. 



LIFE OF ABRAIIAM LINCOLN. 275 

It is a' curious coincidence that Mr. Seward and his son 
who l>otli were very active in the discovery of this plot, and 
in the measures for avoiding its consequences, were the only 
sharers in that violence which, at a later period, destroyed Mr. 
Lincoln's life. It is also a very suggestive fact, touching the 
responsibility of the southern leaders for Mr. Lincoln's assas- 
sination, that when a man of the name of Byrne was arrested 
in Richmond a year afterwards, for keeping a gambling house 
and for disloyalty to the confederate government, he was re- 
leased on the testimony of Mr. Wigfall, who, to prove the 
man's truth to treason, swore that he was captain of the band 
that plotted to assassinate President Lincoln in Baltimore. 

The city of Washington was thrown into a flutter of ex- 
citement by this unexpected arrival. Mr. Lincoln's foes — 
and there were multitudes of them in Washington — ridiculed 
his fears, and his friends were equally v angry and ashamed 
that the chosen chief of the nation should consent to sneak 
into his capital ; but the latter, sooner or later, learned that he 
had taken the wiser course. It was, indeed, a very shameful 
thing that the President elect should have been obliged to do 
what he did, but so long as he was not responsible for it, the 
shame in no Avay attaches to him. 

Mr. Lincoln went immediately into free conferences with 
his friends, visited both houses of Congress, and after a day 
he was waited upon by the Mayor and the municipal author- 
ities, who gave him formal welcome to the city. In his brief 
reply, he took occasion to say that he thought much of the 
ill feeling existing between those living in free and slave states 
Was owing to their failure to understand one another, and then 
assured the Mayor and his party that he did not then enter- 
tain, and had never entertained, any other than kindly feelings 
toward the South, that he had no disposition to treat the peo- 
ple of the South otherwise than as his own neighbors, and that 
he had no wish to withhold from them any of the benefits of 
the Constitution. On the second evening after his arrival, 
the Republican Association tendered him the courtesy of a 
serenade, which attracted a large crowd of friends and curious 



276 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

spectators. On being called out, he made much such an ad- 
dress as he had already made to the Mayor, closing, with an 
expression of the conviction that when they should come to 
know each other better they would be better friends. 

The days that preceded the inauguration were rapidly 
passing away. In the meantime, although General Scott had 
been busy and efficient in his military preparations for the oc- 
casion, many were fearful that scenes of violence would be 
enacted on that day, even should Mr. Lincoln be permitted to 
escape assassination in the meantime. It was a time of fearful 
uncertainty. The leading society of Washington hated Mr. 
Lincoln and the principles he represented. If it would be 
uncharitable to say that they would have rejoiced in his death, 
it is certainly true that they were in perfect sympathy with 
those who were plotting his destruction. His coming and re- 
maining would be death to the social dominance of slavery in 
the national capital. This they felt ; and nothing would have 
pleased them better than a revolution which would send Mr. 
Lincoln back to Illinois, and install Jefferson Davis in the 
White House. There was probably not one man in five in 
Washington at the time Mr. Lincoln entered the city who, in 
his heart, gave him welcome. It is not to be wondered at 
that his friends all over the country looked nervously forward 
to the fourth of March. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Tite morning of the fourth of March broke beautifully 
clear, and it found General Scott and the Washington police in 
readiness for the day. The friends of Mr. Lincoln had gath- 
ered in from far and near, determined that he should be inaumi- 
rated. In the hearts of the surging crowds there was anxiety ; 
but outside, all looked as usual on such occasions, with the 
single exception of an extraordinary display of soldiers. The 
public buildings, the schools and most of the places of business 
were closed during the day, and the stars and stripes were 
floating from every flag-staff. There was a great desire to 
hear Mr. Lincoln's inaugural ; and, at an early hour, Pennsyl- 
vania Avenue was full of people, wending their way to The 
east front of the capitol, from which it was to be delivered. 

At five minutes before twelve o'clock, Vice-President Breck- 
inridge and Senator Foote escorted Mr. Hamlin, the Vice- 
President elect, into the Senate Chamber, and gave him a seat 
at the left of the chair. At twelve, Mr. Breckinridge an- 
nounced the Senate adjourned without day, and then con- 
ducted Mr. Hamlin to the seat he had vacated. At this 
moment, the foreign diplomats, of whom there was a very 
large and brilliant representation, entered the chamber, and 
took the seats assigned to them. At a quarter before one 
o'clock, the Judges of the Supreme Court entered, with the 
venerable Chief Justice Taney at their head, each exchanging 
salutes with the new Vice-President, as they took their seats. 
At a quarter past one o'clock, an unusual stir and excitement 



278 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

announced the coming of the most important personage of the 
occasion. It was a relief to many to know that he was safely 
within the building; and those who were assembled in the 
hall regarded with the profoundest interest the entrance of 
President Buchanan and the President elect — the outgoing 
and the incoming man. A procession was then formed which 
passed to the platform erected for the ceremonies of the oc- 
casion, in the following order: Marshal of the District of 
Columbia, Judges of the Supreme Court and Sergeant-at- 
Arms, Senate Committee of Arrangements, President of the 
United States and President elect, Vice-President, Clerk of 
the Senate, Senators, Diplomatic Corps, heads of departments, 
Governors of states, and such others as were in the chamber. 
On arriving at the platform, Senator Baker of Oregon, whose 
name as one of Mr. Lincoln's old friends and political rivals 
in Illinois has been frequently mentioned in this volume, in- 
troduced Mr. Lincoln to the assembly. There was not a very 
hearty welcome given to the President, as he stepped forward 
to read his inaugural. His enemies were too many, and his 
friends too much in fear of exasperating them. The repre- 
sentative of American loyalty carried his burden alone. The 
inaugural was listened to with profound attention, every pas- 
sage being vociferously cheered which contained any allusion 
to the Union, and none listening more carefully than Mr. Bu- 
chanan and Judge Taney, the latter of Avhom, with much ag- 
itation, administered the oath of office to Mr. Lincoln when 
his address was concluded. 

Mr. Lincoln himself must have wondered at the strange 
conjunction of personages and events. The "Stephen" of 
' his first speech in the old senatorial campaign was a defeated 
candidate for the presidency who then stood patriotically at 
his side, holding the hat of the republican President, which 
he had politely taken at the beginning of the inaugural ad- 
dress; "James" had just walked out of office to make room 
for him; "Franklin" had passed into comparative obscurity 
or something worse, and "Koger" had just administered to 
him the oath of office. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 279 

No thorough understanding of the moderate and concilia- 
tory tone of the inaugural can be acquired without a perusal 
of the document itself. Its arguments were unanswerable, 
and its tune of respectful friendliness toward the South so 
marked that great pains were subsequently taken by the' 
southern press to misrepresent it, and to counteract its ef- 
fects. Mr. Lincoln said : 

"Fellow-Citizens of the Uxited States: — In compliance with a 
custom as old as the government itself, I appear before you to address 
you briefly, and to take, in your presence, the oath prescribed by the 
Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President before 
he enters on the execution of his office. 

" 1 do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to discuss those 
matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or 
excitement. Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the 
southern states, that, by the accession of a republican administration, 
their property and their peace and personal security are to be endan- 
gered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehen- 
sion. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while 
existed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the 
published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote 
from one of those speeches, when I declare that 'I have no purpose, 
directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the 
states where it exists.' I believe I have no lawful right to do so; and I 
have no inclination to do so. Those who nominated and elected me did 
so with the full knowledge that I had made this, and made many similar 
declarations, and had never recanted them. And, more than this, they 
placed in the platform, for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves 
and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read : 

" ' Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, 
and especially the right of each state to order and control its own do- 
mestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential 
to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our 
political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed 
force of the soil of any state or territory, no matter under what pretext, 
as among the gravest of crimes.' 

"I now reiterate these sentiments; and in doing so I only press upon 
the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is 
susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no section are to 
be in anywise endangered by the now incoming administration. 

" I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Con- 
stitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to all the 



280 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

states when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause, as cheerfully to one 
section as to another. 

" There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from 
service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the 
Constitution as any other of its provisions: 

"'No person held to service or labor in one state under the laws 
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regu- 
lation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be 
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may 
be due.' 

" It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those 
who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the 
intention of the lawgiver is the law. 

" All members of Congress swear their support to the whole Consti- 
tution — to this provision as well as any other. To the proposition, then, 
that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause ' shall be de- 
livered up,' their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the 
effort in good temper, could they not, with nearly equal unanimity, frame 
and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath? 

"There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be 
enforced by national or by state authority; but surely that difference is 
not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of 
but little consequence to him or to others by which authority it is done; 
and should any one, in any case, be content that this oath shall go un- 
kept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept? 

" xVgain, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of 
liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, 
so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a slave ? And 
might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the en- 
forcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that ' the 
citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immuni- 
ties of citizens in the several states ? ' 

" I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with 
no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical 
rules; and while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Con- 
gress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer 
for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by 
all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, 
trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional. 

"It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President 
under our national Constitution. During that period fifteen different 
and very distinguished citizens have in succession administered the ex- 
ecutive branch of the government. They have conducted it through 
many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 281 

for precedent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief constitu- 
tional term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulties. 

"A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now 
formidably attempted. I hold that in the contemplation of universal 
law and of the Constitution, the union of these states is perpetual. 
Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all 
national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper 
ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Con- 
tinue to execute all the express provisions of our national Constitution, 
and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it ex- 
cept by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. 

"Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an as- 
sociation of states in the nature of a contract merely, can it, as a con- 
tract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it? 
One party to a contract may violate it — break it, so to speak; but does 
it not require all to lawfully rescind it? Descending from these gen- 
eral principles, we find the proposition that in legal contemplation the 
Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself. 

" The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in 
fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and con- 
tinued in the Declaration of Independence in 1770. It was further ma- 
tured, and the faith of all the then thirteen states expressly plighted 
and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of the Confeder- 
ation, in 1778; and, finally, in 17S7, one of the declared objects for or- 
daining and establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect 
union. Bui if the destruction of the Union by one or by a part only 
of the states be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before, 
the Constitution having lost the vital element of perpetuity. 

"It follows from these views that no state, upon its own mere motion, 
can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that 
effect are legally void; and that acts of violence within any state or 
states againsjb the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or 
revolutionary, according to circumstances. 

"I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, 
the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my ability, I shall take 
care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me,'that the laws 
of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the states. Doing this, 
which I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, I shall perfectly 
perform it, so far as is practicable, unless my rightful masters, the 
American people, shall withhold the requisition, or in some authorita- 
tive manner direct the contrary. 

"I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the de- 
clared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and 
maintain itself. 



282 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

"In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall 
be none unless it is forced upon the national authority. 

" The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the 
property and places belonging to the government, and collect the duties and 
imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects there will 
be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. 

"Where hostility to the United States shall be so great and so uni- 
versal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding fed- 
eral offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among 
the people that object. While strict legal right may exist of the gov- 
ernment to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so 
would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable withal, that I deem 
it best to forego for the time the uses of such offices. 

"The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts 
of the Union. 

" So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that sense of 
perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection. 

"The course here indicated will be followed, unless current events 
and experience shall show a modification or change to be proper; and 
in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised accord- 
ing to the circumstances actually existing, and with a view and hope of 
a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the restoration of fra- 
ternal sympathies and affections. 

"That there are persons, in one section or another, who seek to de- 
stroy the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I 
will neither affirm nor deny. But if there be such, I need address no 
word to them. 

" To those, however, who really love the Union, may I not speak, be- 
fore entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national 
fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes ? Would it not 
be well to ascertain why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a 
step, while any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence ? 
Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real 
ones you fly from ? Will you risk the commission of so fearful a mis- 
take ? All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights 
can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written in the 
Constitution, has been denied? I think not. Happily the human mind 
is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. 

" Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly-written 
provision of the Constitution lias ever been denied. If, by the mere 
force of numbers, a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly- 
written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify 
revolution ; it certainly would, if such right were a vital one. But such 
is not our case. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 283 

"All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals arc so plainly 
assured to them by affirmations and negations, guaranties and prohibi- 
tions in the Constitution, that controversies never arise concerning 
them. But no organic hirw can ever be framed with a provision specifi- 
cally applicable to every question which may occur in practical admin- 
istration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable 
length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall 
fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by state authorities V 
The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slav- 
ery in the territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. From 
questions of this class, spring all our constitutional controversies, and 
we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. 

"If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the gov- 
ernment must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the gov- 
ernment but acquiescence on the one side or the other. Jf a minority 
in such a case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent, 
which, in turn, will ruin and divide them, for a minority of their own 
will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by 
such a minority. For instance, why not any portion of a new confed- 
eracy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as por- 
tions of the present Union now claim to secede from it V All who 
cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper 
of doing this. Is there such perfect identity of interests among the 
states to compose a new Union as to produce harmony only, and pre- 
vent renewed secession ? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the 
essence of anarchy. 

"A majority held in restraint by constitutional check and limitation, 
and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions 
and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever 
rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity 
is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is 
wholly inadmissible. So that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy 
or despotism, in some form, is all that is left. 

" I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional 
questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that 
such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit, 
as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to a very high 
respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments 
of the government; and while it is obviously possible that such decision 
may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, 
being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be 
overruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be 
borne than could the evils of a different practice. 

"At the same time the candid citizen must confess that, if the policy 



284 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of the government upon the vital question affecting the whole people 
is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court, the 
instant they are made, as in ordinary litigation between parties in per- 
sonal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own masters, un- 
less having to that extent practically resigned their government into 
the hands of that eminent tribunal. 

"Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. 
It is a duty from which they may not shrink, to decide cases properly 
brought before them; and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn 
their decisions to political purposes. One section of our country be- 
lieves slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other be- 
lieves it is wrong, and ought not to be extended-, and this is the only 
substantial dispute; and the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution 
and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade, are each as 
well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where 
the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The 
great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, 
and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured, 
and it would be worse, in both cases, after the separation of the sections, 
than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, 
would be ultimately revived, without restriction, in one section; while 
fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be surren- 
dered at all by the other 

"Physically speaking we can not separate; we can not remove our 
respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall be- 
tween them. A husband and wife may be divorced: and go out of the 
presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of 
our country cannot do this. They can not but remain face to face ; and 
intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. 
Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or 
more satisfactory after separation than before ? Can aliens make treat- 
ies easier than friends can make laws'? Can treaties be more faithfully 
enforced between aliens than laws can among friends ? Suppose you 
o-o to Avar, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both 
sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions 
as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. 

" This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit 
it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they 
can exercise their constitutional right of amending, or their revolution- 
ary right to dismember or overthrow it. I can not be ignorant of the 
fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the 
national Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of 
amendment. I fully recognize the fidl authority of the people over the 
whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 285 

instrument itself, and I should, under existing circumstances, favor 
rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act 
upon it. 

"I will venture to add, that to me the convention mode seems prefer- 
able, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people them- 
selves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions 
originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which 
might not be precisely such as they would wish either to accept or re- 
fuse. I understand that a proposed amendment to the Constitution 
(which amendment, however, I have not seen) ha.s passed Congress, to 
the effect that the federal government shall never interfere with the 
domestic institutions of states, including that of persons held to service. 
To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose 
not to speak of particular amendments, so far as to say that, holding 
such a provison to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objec- 
tion to its being made express and irrevocable. 

"The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and 
they have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for the separation 
of the states. The people themselves, also, can do this if they choose, 
but the executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to 
administer the present government as it came to his hands, and to 
transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should there not 
be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people ? Is there 
any better or equal hope in the world ? In our present differences is 
either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty 
Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of 
the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will 
surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, the American 
people. By the frame of the government under which Ave live, this 
same people have wisely given their public servants but little power 
for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of 
that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people 
retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme 
wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the 
short space of four years. 

"My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole 
subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. 

"If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step 
which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated 
by taking time: but no good object can be frustrated by it. 

" Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution 
unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing 
under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power, 
if it would, to change either. 



286 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN. 

"If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side 
in the dispute, there is still no single reason for precipitate action. In- 
telligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Ilim who has 
never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in 
the best way, all our present difficulties. 

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, 
is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail 
you. 

"You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. 
You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government; 
while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and de- 
fend' it 

'- 1 am loth to close. "VVe are not enemies, but friends. We must not 
be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our 
bonds of affection. 

" The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and 
patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad 
land, wiii yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as 
surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 

The address delivered and the oath administered, the au- 
gust ceremonies of the occasion were concluded ; and, passing 
back through the Senate Chamber, the President was escorted 
to the White House, where Mr. Buchanan took leave of him, 
and where the people were received by him in large numbers. 
Mr. Lincoln, on being asked whether he felt frightened while 
delivering his address, in consequence of the threats of assas- 
sination, replied that he had frequently experienced greater 
fear in addressing a dozen western men on the subject of tem- 
perance. Of one thing the "fire-eaters" were assured by the 
address, viz : that if a war was to be inaugurated, they would 
be obliged to fire the first gun. Mr. Lincoln had pledged 
himself to take no step of even doubtful propriety. He pro- 
posed simply to possess and hold the property of the United 
States. 

And now began the great work of Mr. Lincoln's life. The 
humble boy, reared in a log cabin, was the great man, occu- 
pying the proudest place in the nation, in the most perilous 
period of that nation's existence. He was in the White 
House as God's and the people's instrument, to work for both. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 287 

His first duty was the formal designation of a cabinet, for 
undoubtedly his choice of secretaries was essentially settled in 
his own mind before he left home. The highest position was 
offered to Mr. Seward, the first statesman in the republican 
party, and the equal if not the superior of any in the country. 
Concerning the filling of the office of Secretary of State, it is 
believed that Mr. Lincoln had no hesitation. Mr. Seward 
Avas his first and last choice. With equal promptitude he de- 
cided to call Edward Bates of Missouri to the office of Attor- 
ney General. Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania was known 
to be an aspirant for cabinet honors; and, it is believed, would 
have accepted the post of Secretary of the Treasury with more 
alacrity than he did that of Secretary of War, to which Mr. 
Lincoln called him. Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, who shared 
with Mr. Seward the highest regards of the republican party 
and the confidence of the country, was appointed to the 
Treasury. The men thus brought into the government were 
all prominent candidates for the presidency at Chicago, and 
on the first ballot received an aggregate of three hundred and 
twenty-one votes of the four hundred and sixty-five cast. 
The great majority of the party thus had the expression of 
their first choice for the presidency honored by Mr. Lincoln 
in a remarkable degree. Gideon Welles of Connecticut was 
appointed Secretary of the Navy. Caleb B. Smith of Indi- 
ana, an old personal friend of Mr. Lincoln, and for many 
years a distinguished politician of the West, was offered the 
Portfolio of the Interior, and accepted it; and Montgomery 
Blair of Maryland was appointed Postmaster General. 

Thus furnished with his secretaries, another most important 
work opened before him — the clearing the departments of the 
sympathizers with treason. This was indeed a Herculean 
task. Treason was everywhere. Every department was in- 
fected. The men had been manipulated so long by treason- 
able hands — had been moulded mto such thorough sympathy 
with the rebellion — and had so imbibed its treacherous spirit, 
that no measure could be discussed or adopted by the new 
administration that was not reported to the rebels by some 



2S8 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

clerk or confidant. The government was betrayed every clay- 
by its own agents. Not a step could be taken by Mr. Lincoln, 
in any direction, that some spy in the departments, or some 
traitor in his confidence, did not report to his enemies. 

There were certain things that Mr. Lincoln specially en- 
deavored to do in his inaugural address, and in all the prelim- 
inary work of his administration. He endeavored to show 
that the rebellion was without an adequate cause — to show 
this first to his own people, and then to the governments and 
peoples on the other side of the Atlantic. He endeavored to 
leave no way untried that promised to procure or preserve an 
honorable peace. He endeavored so to manage affairs that 
whenever open hostilities should come, they should be begun 
by the rebels and not by the government. He intended to 
preserve for himself and for the government a clean record. 
He intended to bear with the rebellion just so long as it con- 
fined itself to paper — nay, further than this — to bear with it 
to the silent sufferance of many practical indignities. He did 
not mean to unsheath a sword, or fire a gun, until the rebellion 
absolutely compelled him to do so. Yet, while waiting the 
development of events, he was very busily engaged in clearing 
the government for action. Many of the revelations and 
movements of the first few weeks would doubtless be startling, 
even to-day, but the time has not yet come for their exposure. 

Mr. Lincoln found not only the departments corrupt and 
unreliable, but he found the public mind abroad thoroughly 
poisoned against him, and fully in sympathy with the seces- 
sionists. Perhaps a majority of the representatives of the 
government in Europe were in the secrets of the seceders, 
and, in company with many who had gone from the southern 
states to shape public opinion to the interests of treason, were 
doing everything in their power to injure the government 
which had honored them. The places thus disgraced and 
made instruments in the hands of treason were to be filled by 
loyal men ; and a set of influences were to be put in motion 
which should secure respect for the government, and a sound 
understanding of the merits of the controversy between the 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 289 

government and slavery. To fill these places was not an easy 
task, but it was done quickly and, in the main, wisely. 

It is proper here to give an explanation of Mr. Lincoln's 
pacific policy, at this time. Great fault was subsequently 
found with him by the extremists among his northern friends, 
for his deference to the border states ; and a full understanding 
of his policy, as it related to these states, cannot be had with- 
out going back to this period when it was initiated. There 
were fifteen slave states, which those engaged in the rebellion 
hoped to lead or to force into secession. At the time of the 
inauguration, only seven of these fifteen — less than a major- 
ity — had revolted. The cotton states alone had followed the 
lead of South Carolina out of the Union. Several weeks had 
passed since a state had seceded; and unless other states could 
be dragooned into the movement, the rebellion Avould be prac- 
tically a failure from the start. Such a confederacy could not 
hope to live a year, and would be obliged to find its way back 
into the Union upon some terms. In the meantime, two or 
three conventions in the border states, delegated freshly from 
the people, had voted distinctly and decidedly not to secede. 
The affairs of the confederacy were really in a very precarious 
condition when Mr. Lincoln came into power. The rebel gov- 
ernment was making very much more bluster than progress. 

It became Mr. Lincoln's policy so to conduct affairs as to 
strengthen the Union feeling in the border states, and to give 
utterance to no sentiment and to do no deed which should 
drive these states toward the confederacy. He saw that if he 
could hold these states, there could not be a very serious war ; 
for the first condition of success to the rebel cause was its 
general adoption by the border slave states. To hold these 
states by every means that did not bring absolute disgrace 
upon the government was his object. He must do nothing 
that would weaken the hands of Union men. The difficult 
position of these Union men he fully comprehended and con- 
sidered. Of course, he had a hard path to pursue ; and it is 
not strange that those more hasty than himself should some- 
times think he was loitering by the way, or was making it 
19 



290 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

more tortuous than was either necessary or expedient. It is 
doubtful whether the politicians of New England ever gave 
Mr. Lincoln the credit which was his due for retaining in the 
Union those slave states which never left their allegiance. An 
early and decided war policy would have been morally certain 
to drive every slave state into the confederacy, except Mary- 
land and Delaware, and they would only have been retained 
by force. 

The confederacy found that it must make progress or die. 
The rebel Congress passed a measure for the organization of 
an army, on the ninth of March, and on the twelfth two con- 
federate commissioners — Mr. Forsyth of Alabama and Mr. 
Crawford of Georgia — presented themselves at the State De- 
partment at Washington for the purpose of making a treaty 
with the United States. They knew, of course, that they 
could not be received officially, and that they ought to be ar- 
rested for treason. The President would not recognize them, 
but sent to them a copy of his Inaugural, as the embodiment 
of the views of the government. The commissioners hung 
about Washington for a month, learning what they could, and 
in daily communication with the traitors who still haunted the 
confidence of the heads of the government. Mr. Seward's 
reply to them, on the eighth of April, was delayed at their 
own request until that time, and when it came they probably 
knew what its contents and character would be. In order to 
give secession a new impetus, they wished, in some way, to 
throw the responsibility of beginning war upon the Washing- 
ton authorities, and to make it appear that they had exhausted 
all peaceable measures for an adjustment of the difficulties. 

In the meantime, Lieutenant Talbot, on behalf of Mr. Lin- 
coln, was having interviews with Governor Pickens of South 
Carolina and with General Beauregard, in command of the 
confederate forces there, in which he informed them that pro- 
visions would be sent to Fort Sumter peaceably if possible, — 
otherwise by force. This was communicated to L. P. "W alker, 
then rebel Secretary of War. Before Talbot had made his 
communication, Beauregard had informed Major Anderson, 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 201 

in command of Fort Sumter, that he must have no further 
intercourse with Charleston; and Talbot himself was refused 
permission to visit that gallant and faithful officer. 

These were very dark days with Mr. Lincoln. The rebels 
were determined to wrest from him a pi*etext for war — deter- 
mined to make him take a step which could be made to appear 
to be the first stop. At the same time, he was making rapid 
preparations for war, all of which must be kept secret from 
friends, that they might not exasperate foes. The loyal press 
became impatient with his apparent inactivity, and under the 
inspiration of this press the loyal' masses became uneasy. 
Under these circumstances, there were not wanting disloyal 
men in the North, who became bold in the entertainment of 
schemes for a revolution. Mr. Douglas himself did not sup- 
port the administration, although he had publicly declared for 
coercion. He could not forget his hatred of the republican 
party ; and was ready for almost any scheme for its\lestruc- 
tion. He wished to organize a great compromise party, 
which would consent to the reconstruction of the Union, with 
slavery recognized and protected in all its departments. Un- 
til the first overt act of war had been committed, he brought 
no aid to the government. 

While Mr. Lincoln's friends were clamoring for a policy — 
as if he had not a very decided one — and his foes north and 
south were busy with their schemes for the destruction of 
himself, his party and his country, he was performing the 
most exhausting labors. He was thronged with office-seekers, 
to whose claims he gave his personal attention. He was hold- 
ing protracted cabinet meetings. He was in almost hourly 
intercourse with prominent men from every section of the 
country. All these labors he was performing with the con- 
sciousness that his nominal friends were doubtful, that seven 
states were in open revolt, and that a majority throughout the 
Union had not the slightest sympathy with him. 

There was distraction, also, in his counsels. Loyal men, 
burning with patriotic indignation, were demanding that Fort 
Sumter should be reinforced and provisioned, while the vet- 



292 LIFE OF ABB AH AM LINCOLN. 

eran Lieutenant General was advising its abandonment as a 
military necessity. The wisdom of Mr. Lincoln's waiting 
became evident at a day not too long delayed. Fort Pickens, 
which the rebels had not taken, was quietly reinforced, and 
when the vessels which carried the relief were dispatched, 
Mr. Lincoln gave official information to General Beauregard 
that provisions were to be sent to Major Anderson in Fort 
Sumter, by an unarmed vessel. He was determined that no 
hostile act on the part of the government should commence the 
war, for which both sides were preparing ; although an act of 
open war had already transpired in Charleston harbor, for 
which the rebel forces were responsible. The steamer Star 
of the West, loaded with troops and provisions for Major 
Anderson, was fired upon and driven out of the harbor two 
months before the expiration of Mr. Buchanan's term of office. 
The supplying the garrison with food was an act of humanity, 
and not an act of war, except as it might be so construed. 

Beauregard laid this last intelligence before his Secretary 
of War, and under special instructions, on the twelfth of 
April, he demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter. He was 
ready to make the demand, and to back it by force. The city 
of Charleston was full* of troops, and, for months, batteries 
had been in course of construction, with the special purpose 
of compelling the surrender of the fort. Major Anderson 
had seen these batteries going up, day after day, without the 
liberty to fire a gun. He declined to surrender. He was 
called upon to state when he would evacuate the fort. He re- 
plied that on the fifteenth he would do so, should he not mean- 
time receive controlling instructions from the government, or 
additional supplies. The response which he received was that 
the confederate batteries would open on Fort Sumter in one 
hour from the date of the message. The date of the message 
was "April 12, 1861, 3:30 A. M." Beauregard was true 
to his word. At half past four, the batteries opened upon the 
fort, which, after a long and terrible bombardment, and a gal- 
lant though comparatively feeble defense by a small and half- 
starved garrison, was surrendered the following day. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLX. 293 

This was practically the initial act of war. Mr. Lincoln, 
by his determined forbearance, had thrown the onus of its 
commencement upon the rebel government. Never by word, 
or deed, or declared or concealed intention, had he wronged 
the South, or denied its rights under the Constitution. By no 
hostile act had he provoked war. From the time he had first 
opened his lips as President of the United States, he had 
breathed none but pacific words. He had claimed the least 
that he could claim for the government, and still preserve a 
show of right and power. Upon the heads of the conspirators 
rested every particle of responsibility for the beginning of the 
war, and the train of horrors that followed. The rebellion 
was conceived in perjury, brought forth in violence, cradled 
in ignorance, and reared upon spoil. It never had an apology 
for existence that will be entertained for a moment at the bar 
of history. It never was anything from its birth to its death 
but a crime — a crime against Christianity, against patriotism, 
against humanity, against civilization, against progress, against 
personal and political honor, against the people who were 
forced to support it, against the people who voluntarily put it 
down, and against that God to whom it blasphemously appealed 
for justification, and arrogantly prayed for success. 

The fall of Sumter was the resurrection of patriotism. The 
North needed just this. Such a universal burst of patriotic 
indignation as ran over the North under the influence of this 
insult to the national flag has never been witnessed. It swept 
away all party lines as if it had been flame and they had been 
flax. No combination of moral influences could thus have 
united in one feeling and purpose the elements which the fire 
from those batteries welded into a burning union. All dis- 
loyalty was silenced. Compromise was a word that had no 
significance. "Coercion" — a word which had had a fearful 
meaning among the timid — lost its terrors. There was a uni- 
versal desire, all over the North, to avenge the foul insult. It 
was worth a life-time of indifference or discord to feel and to 
see a nation thus once more united in thought and purpose, 
and to realize that underneath all divisions of party and sect, 



294 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and deeper down than selfish interest and personal prejudice, 
there was a love of country which made us a nation. 

Now was the time for Mr. Lincoln to act. .Up to this date 
he had had no basis for action in the popular feeling. If he 
had raised an army, that would have been an act of hostility — 
that would have been a threat of "coercion." A thousand 
northern presses would have pounced upon him as a provoker 
of war. On the fifteenth of April he issued a proclamation, 
calling upon the loyal states for seventy-five thousand men to 
protect the national capital, and suppress such combinations 
as had been made to resist the inforcement of the laws of the 
United States. "I appeal" said Mr. Lincoln, in this procla- 
mation, "to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and aid this 
effort to maintain the honor, the integrity and existence of our 
national Union, and the perpetuity of popular government, 
and to redress the wrongs already long enough endured." 
The first service, he stated, to which the forces thus called for 
would be subjected would be to repossess the forts, places and 
property taken from the Union by the rebels. By the same 
proclamation he convened both Houses of Congress to assem- 
ble on the fourth of July. 

The utterance of this proclamation was so clearly a necessity, 
and was so directly a response to the uprising of the people, 
that not a voice was raised against it. It was received with 
no small degree of excitement, but it was a healthy excite- 
ment. It was a necessity; and loyal men everywhere felt 
that the great struggle between slavery and the country was 
upon them. "Better that it should be settled by us than by 
our children," said men, everywhere ; and in their self-devo- 
tion they were encouraged by their mothers, sisters and wives. 
The South knew that war must come, and they were prepared. 
Nearly all the southern forts were already in their hands. 
They had robbed the northern arsenals through the miscreant 
Floyd. They had cut off the payment of all debts due the 
North. They had ransacked the mails, so that the government 
could have no communication with its friends and forces. 
They had been instructino; officers for years, and drilling 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 295 

troops for months. They knew that there were not arms 
enough in the North to furnish an army competent to overcome 
them. When, therefore, Mr. Lincoln called for his seventy- 
five thousand men, they met the proclamation with a howl of 
derision. 

Massachusetts was the first state to respond to the call for 
troops. Governor Andrew, a devoted friend of the adminis- 
tration, acted as promptly then in the support of the govern- 
ment as he afterwards labored with efficient persistence in the 
destruction of the rebellion; but the credit of having the 
troops ready for motion and action was due mainly to the fore- 
sight of Governor N. P. Banks, afterwards a Major General 
in the federal service. lie was Governor Andrew's prede- 
cessor ; and three years before the breaking out of the rebel- 
lion declared, when rallied on his devotion to the military, that 
the troops would be called upon within a few years to suppress 
a slaveholders' rebellion. The prediction seemed very wild 
then, and probably would never have b.een recalled but for its 
exact fulfillment. The troops which he had made ready, Gov- 
ernor Andrew, coming after him, promptly dispatched. 

The moral effect of the marching of the Massachusetts 
Sixth was very great. The hearts of the people were stirred 
all along their route by the most powerful emotions. They 
were fed and applauded at every considerable station. Wo- 
men thronged around the cars, bringing to them their Bibles 
and other gifts, and giving them their tearful blessing. New 
York city was much impressed by their sturdy march through 
the great metropolis. It was a new sensation. Men forgot 
their counting-rooms and ware-houses, and gave themselves 
up to the emotions excited by so prompt and gallant an exhi- 
bition of patriotism. But the tramp of the Sixth awoke the 
young men everywhere to deeds of emulation. Within forty- 
eight hours after this regiment left Boston, two more regi- 
ments had been made ready, and were dispatched. On its 
way through Baltimore, the Sixth Regiment was attacked by 
a mob, carrying a secession flag, and several of its members 
killed and wounded. This outrage added new fuel to the fire. 



296 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The North was growing angry. The idea that a loyal regi- 
ment could not pass through a nominally loyal city, on its 
way to protect the national capital, without fighting its way 
through, aroused a storm of indignation that swept over the 
whole of loyal America. 

Governor Hicks of Maryland and Mayor Brown of Balti- 
more were frightened. They did not wish to have any more 
troops taken through Baltimore. Mr. Lincoln assured them 
that he made no point of bringing troops through that city, 
and that he left the matter with General Scott, who had said 
in his presence that the troops might be marched around Bal- 
timore. By this arrangement a collision with the people of 
Baltimore would be avoided, unless they should go out of the 
way to seek it. "Now and ever," said Mr. Lincoln, in closing 
a note to these gentlemen, "I shall do all in my power for 
peace, consistently with the maintenance of the government." 

Governor Hicks wished the quarrel between the North and 
South referred to Lord Lyons, the British minister, for arbi- 
tration. To this Mr. Seward, speaking for the President, made 
a most admirable reply, stating that whatever noble sentiments, 
once prevalent in Maryland, had been obliterated, the Presi- 
dent would be hopeful, nevertheless, that there is one that 
would forever remain there and everywhere. That sentiment 
is that no domestic contention whatever, that may arise among 
the parties of this republic, ought, in any case, to be referred 
to any foreign arbitrament — least of all to the arbitrament of 
a foreign monarchy." 

Governor Hicks occupied, without doubt, a difficult posi- 
tion. Out of ninety-two thousand votes cast at the presiden- 
tial election, only a little more than two thousand had been 
cast for Mr. Lincoln. More than forty-two thousand votes 
had been given for Mr. Breckinridge, and almost an equal 
number for John Bell. Maryland was a southern slave-hold- 
ing state, and the sympathies of four persons in every five 
were with the rebellion. His people threatened him, while 
the government would have its troops, and insisted that they 
should pass through Maryland. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 297 

After the passage of the Massachusetts Sixth, the mob had 
control. They burnt the bridges north of Baltimore, so as to 
cut off the means of access to the city ; and then, against the 
protests of the governor, the troops were forwarded by way 
of Annapolis. 

Four days after Mr. Lincoln's call for troops — on the day 
of the bloody passage of the Massachusetts Sixth throuo-h 
Baltimore — he issued a proclamation declaring a blockade of 
the ports of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mis- 
sissippi, Louisiana and Texas. This call for troops and the 
establishment of a blockade were the preliminaries of one of 
the most remarkable wars that have occurred in the history 
of the human race — a Avar which, for the number of men in- 
volved, the amount of spaces traversed, of coast line block- 
aded, of material consumed and results achieved, surpasses 
all the Avars of history. 

The South had calculated upon the disloyalty of Maryland. 
Nay, more, it had calculated on the assistance of a laro-e 
party at the North. It did not intend to be confined in its 
Avarlike operations to its OAvn territory. Northern politicians, 
and among them ex-President Pierce, had told them it Avould 
not be. It expected to take and hold Washington, and to banish 
the government ; and Maryland had an important part to play 
in the drama. Jefferson Davis had openly declared that the 
North and not the South should be the field of battle. The 
rebel Secretary of War said publicly in Montgomery that 
Avhile no man could tell Avhere the war would end, he would 
prophesy that the flag Avhich then flaunted the breeze at Mont- 
gomery would float over the dome of the old capitol at Wash- 
ington before the first of May; and that it "might float 
eventually over Fanueil Hall itself." To make good these 
predictions, the rebel goA'ernment organized and sent tOAvard 
Virginia, a force of 20,000 men, calculating upon the secession 
of Virginia which had not then joined the confederacy, and 
which, left to the popular choice, never Avould have taken that 
fatal step. 

The attitude of the tAvo governments at this period pre- 



298 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

sentcd a strong contrast — a most Instructive contrast to all 
who are curious to mark the respective degrees of responsi- 
bility attaching to them for the war which followed. The 
confederate forces, or the state forces in the confederate inter- 
est, had seized and occupied nearly every fort, arsenal and 
dock-yard belonging to the United States, upon the southern 
territory. The rebel government had opened its batteries 
upon United States vessels, and had bombarded and captured 
Fort Sumter. It had issued letters of marque to distress our 
commerce. It was engaged in the attempt to force every bor- 
der slave state into the support of its schemes. It was push- 
ing its soldiers northward for a war of aggression; and its 
highest representatives were publicly boasting that their flag 
would soon float over the capitol at Washington, and that the 
war should not be carried on upon confederate soil. The at- 
titude of the rebel government was that of direct, bitter, de- 
termined, aggressive hostility. 

Virginia at this time was holding a state convention which, to 
the dismay and vexation of the rebel leaders, was controlled by 
a large majority of Union men. Nothing is more demonstrable 
than that the choice of Virginia was to remain in the Union. 
These delegates were chosen as Union men ; yet every possi- 
ble influence was brought to bear upon them to cajole or co- 
erce them into disunion. Threats, misrepresentations, prom- 
ises of power, social proscription, appeals to personal and sec- 
tional interest, everything that treasonable ingenuity could 
suggest were resorted to to urge the laggard state into the 
vortex of secession. The fall of Sumter, the inaugural of 
President Lincoln and the failure of the confederate com- 
missioners to secure a treaty were used in different ways to 
inflame southern pride, and loosen the love of .the loyal 
members from the old Union. The President's Inaugural had 
been so misconstrued as to convey the idea that his policy was 
one of coercion ; and the convention sent a committee to Mr. 
Lincoln, commissioned to ask him to communicate to the con- 
vention the policy which the federal executive intended to 
pursue, in regard to the confederate states, complaining that 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 299 

great and injurious uncertainty prevailed in the public mind 
in regard to this policy. 

To this request Mr. Lincoln gave a formal answer; and in 
this answer appears the contrast to which attention has been 
called. He expressed his regret and mortification that, after 
having stated his position and policy as plainly as he was able 
to state it in his inaugural address, there should be any uncer- 
tainty on the subject. "As I then and therein said," the 
reply proceeds, '"the power confided in me Avill be used to 
hold, occupy and possess property and places belonging to 
the government, and to collect duties and imposts; but, be- 
yond what is necessary for these objects, there will be no 
invasion, no using of force against, or among, people any- 
where.' " Fort Sumter, he declared it his purpose to repos- 
sess, with all the other places seized from the government, 
and to the best of his ability he should repel force by force. 
In consequence of the attack on Sumter, it was possible that 
he should cause the withdrawal of the mails from the states 
which claimed to have seceded. He closed by reiterating the 
claim of the government upon the military posts and property 
which had been seized, and by stating that, whatever else he 
might do for the purpose, he should not "attempt to collect 
the duties and imposts by any armed invasion of any part of 
the country," not meaning by that, however, to cut himself 
off from the liberty to land a force necessary to relieve a fort 
upon the border of the country. 

On one side was rampant treason and a policy of aggressive 
war ; on the other, patient forbearance, and the most consider- 
ate care not to take any step not absolutely necessary to the 
maintenance of the indisputable rights of the government. 
No man in the United States who pretended to be loyal could 
find fault with Mr. Lincoln for claiming: too much, or beino- 
harsh with those "erring sisters" who, it was believed by 
many, might be gently led back to their allegiance. 

On the seventeenth of April, Virginia went out of the 
Union by a convention vote of eighty-eight to fifty-five ; and 
on the twenty-first of May the confederate capital was trans- 



300 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ferred to Richmond. Thenceforth Virginia went straight 
toward desolation. Its "sacred soil" was from that hour 
devoted to trenches, fortifications, battle-fields, military roads, 
camps and graves. 

The conciliatory policy of Mr. Lincoln had threatened the 
ruin of the confederacy ; but the confederacy made Avar, and 
then appealed to the border states for sympathy and help. 
Governor Pickens of South Carolina telegraphed the fall of 
Sumter to the Governor of Virginia, and appealed to Virginia 
to know what she was going to do. This was the policy — to 
precipitate war, and then appeal to sectional pride and interest 
for sectional assistance. The first practical show of sectional 
feeling on the part of the border states was contained in the 
angry and insulting responses which they returned to Mr. 
Lincoln's call for troops. These responses exhibited the sym- 
pathies of their Governors, at least. Tennessee, North Caro- 
lina and Arkansas followed Virginia out of the Union, and 
thus the confederate cause made the gain it sought. 

At the North and West the response to the President's call 
for soldiers was rendered with enthusiastic alacrity, the states 
vieing with each other in the office of raising, fitting out and 
dispatching troops. Money was offered to the government by 
millions, and the President found that he had a basis for a 
policy in the national feeling. After a week of great anxiety, 
Washington was relieved ; and while troops from the North 
were rushing southward, a still larger number from the South 
were pushing northward in preparation for the grand struggle. 

One of the most encouraging incidents of this opening 
chapter of the war was a visit of Mr. Douglas to Mr. Lin- 
coln, in which the former gave to the latter the assurance of 
his sympathy and support in the war for the preservation of 
the Union. It is to be remembered that Mr. Douglas was an 
ambitious man, that he was a strong party man, that he had 
battled for power with all the persistence of a strong and de- 
termined nature, and that he was a sadly disappointed man. 
The person with whom he had had his hardest fights occupied 
the chair to which he had for many years aspired. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 301 

On Sunday, the fourteenth of April, all Washington was 
alive with excitement under the effect of the news of the fall 
of Sumter. Secessionists could not conceal their joy, and 
the loyal were equally sad and indignant. Churches were 
forsaken, and the opening of the war was the only topic of 
thought and conversation. Under these circumstances, Hon. 
George Ashmun of Massachusetts, who was personally on the 
most friendly terms with Air. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, called 
on the latter in the evening, to obtain from him some public 
declaration that should help the government in its extremity. 
He found the Senator surrounded by political friends, who 
were soon dismissed, and then, for an hour, the two men dis- 
cussed the relations of Mr. Douglas to the administration. 
The first impulse of the Senator was against Mr. Ashmun's 
wishes, who desired him to go to the President at once, and tell 
him he would sustain him in all the needful measures which 
the exigency demanded. His reply was : " Mr. Lincoln has 
dealt hardly with me, in removing some of my friends from 
office, and I don't know as he wants my advice or aid." Mr. 
Ashmun remarked that he had probably followed democratic 
precedents in making removals, but that the present question 
was above party, and that it was now in the power of Mr. 
Douglas to render such a service to his country as would not 
only give him a title to its lasting gratitude, but would show 
that in the hour of his country's need he could trample all 
party considerations and resentments under feet. At this 
juncture, Mrs. Douglas came in, and gave the whole weight 
of her affectionate influence in the direction in Avhich Mr. 
Ashmun was endeavoring to lead him. He could not with- 
stand the influence of his friend, his wife, and that better na- 
ture to which they appealed. He gave up all his enmity, all 
his resentment, cast every unworthy sentiment and selfish 
feeling behind him, and cordially declared his willingness to 
go to Mr. Lincoln, and offer him his earnest and hearty sup- 
port. 

It was nearly dark when the two gentlemen started for the 
President's house. Mr. Lincoln was alone, and on learnino- 



302 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

their errand gave them a most cordial welcome. For once, 
the life-loner antagonists were united in heart and purpose. 
Mr. Lincoln took up the proclamation, calling for seventy-rive 
thousand troops, which he had determined to issue the next 
day, and read it. When he had finished, Mr. Douglas rose 
from his chair and said : " Mr. President, I cordially concur 
in every word of that document, except that instead of the 
call for seventy-five thousand men I would make it two hund- 
red thousand. You do not know the dishonest purposes of 
those men as well as I do." Then he asked the President 
and Mr. Ashmun to look at a map of the United States which 
huno- at one end of the room. On this he pointed out, in 
detail, the principal strategic points which should be at once 
strengthened for the coming contest. Among the more prom- 
inent of these were Fortress Monroe, Washington, Harper's 
Ferry and Cairo. He then enlarged upon the firm, warlike 
course which should be pursued, while Mr. Lincoln listened 
with earnest interest, and the two old foes parted that night 
thorough friends, perfectly united in a patriotic purpose. 

After leaving the President, Mr. Ashmun said to Mr. Doug- 
las: "You have done justice to your own reputation and to 
the President ; and the country must know it. The procla- 
mation will go by telegraph all over the country in (he morn- 
ing, and the account of this interview must go with it. I 
shall send it, either in my own language or yours. J prefer 
that you should give your own version." Mr. Douglas said 
he would write it ; and so the dispatch went with the message 
wherever the telegraph would carry it, confirming the waver- 
ing of his own party, and helping to raise the tide of loyal 
feelino-, among all parties and classes, to its flood. The dis- 
patch, the original of which Mr. Ashmun still retains, was as 
follows : 

"Mr. Douglas called on the President this evening, and had an inter- 
esting conversation on the present condition of the country. The sub- 
stance of the conversation was that while Mr. Douglas was unalterably 
opposed to the administration on all its political issues, he was prepared 
to sustain the President in the exercise of all his constitutional functions 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 303 

to preserve the Union, and maintain the government and defend the 
federal capital. A firm policy and prompt action were necessary. The 
capital of our country was in danger and must be defended at all haz- 
ards, and at any expense of men or money. He spoke of the present 
and future without reference to the past." 

The writer of the life of Mr. Lincoln and the chronicler of 
the rebellion will find few more delightful tasks than that of 
recording the unwearied devotion of Mr. Douglas to the cause 
of his country during the brief remainder of his life. He 
was done with his dreams of power, done with the thought 
that compromise would save the country, and done, for the 
time at least, with schemes for party aggrandizement. Six 
days after his interview with Mr. Lincoln he was on his way 
home, and at Bellair, Ohio, he was called out to make a 
speech. All parties received him with the greatest enthusi- 
asm, and every word he uttered had the genuine ring of pa- 
triotism. Subsequently he addressed the legislature of Illinois, 
at Springfield, and his own fellow-citizens at Chicago. The 
old party talk and the old party policy were all forgotten, and 
only the sturdy, enthusiastic patriot spoke. In one of the 
last letters he ever wrote he said: "We should never forget 
that a man cannot be a true democrat unless he is a loyal pa- 
triot." In May he became sick, and on the third of June he 
died. In the low delirium that attended his disease he talked 
of nothing but his country, and almost his last coherent words 
were shaped to a wish for its honor and prosperity, through 
the defeat and dispersion of its enemies. 

Mr. Lincoln felt his death as a calamity. He had been of 
great service to him in unveiling the designs of the rebels, and 
in bringing to the support of the government an element which 
a word from him at a favorable moment would have alienated. 
He freely said that he regarded Mr. Douglas as one of his 
best and most valuable friends. 

To those who are curious in marking strange coincidences, 
it will be interesting to remember that just four years to an 
hour after Mr. Douglas parted with Mr. Lincoln, at the close 
of the interview that has been described, Mr. Lincoln was 



304 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

slain by an assassin. Both died with a common purpose up- 
permost in their minds, one in the threatening morning of the 
rebellion, and the other when its sun had just set in blood; 
and both sleep in the dust of that magnificent state almost 
every rod of which, within a quarter of a century, had echoed 
to their contending voices as they expounded their principles 
to the people. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The emergency which the rebellion forced upon the gov- 
ernment found that government no less prepared to meet it 
than it found the loyal people of the country wanting in mili- 
tary knowledge and experience. The people were so eager 
to furnish men and supplies that they at once became impa- 
tient for results. No one among them seemed to doubt that 
the rebellion might be crushed in a few months, at most. 
They did not comprehend the almost infinite detail of a war. 
Patience was a virtue which it took four years to teach them; 
and when every man connected with the government was 
making all the efforts possible to forward the preparations for 
the struggle, the popular press — meaning well, but much mis- 
apprehending the difficulties of the situation — were already 
finding fault with the tardiness of operations. They had ap- 
parently forgotten how long it took to bring the Mexican war 
to a successful termination ; — indeed, they stood in a very differ- 
ent relation to this war from that which they had held toward 
the Mexican war. That was a war of the government against 
another power; this was a war of their own, against domestic 
traitors who sought to overthrow the government. Every 
loyal man had a direct interest in the war; and he judged 
every movement and every delay as if it were his own private 
enterprise. There were inconveniences in this ; but, in this 
universal personal interest, lay the secret of those four years 
of popular devotion to the war which so astonished the ob- 
servers of other lands, and made ultimate victory, under 
Providence, a certainty from the first. 
20 



306 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

This popular impatience was, (luring the first two or three 
years of the war, one of the serious difficulties with which 
the administration had to deal. It had its advantages in hold- 
ing to vigilance and industry all who were in responsible po- 
sitions, but it had disadvantages in sometimes compelling pre- 
cipitancy of action, and in breeding in the administration the 
idea that the people were to be managed like children whose 
food should be carefully prepared in the departments when- 
ever it was administered, or carefully withheld when their 
stomachs were not able to receive it. This idea of the people 
was not born in the White House. Mr. Lincoln had a pro- 
found respect for the people, and never had any sympathy with 
efforts which aimed to make them instruments in the hands 
of the government, or which ignored the fact that they were 
the source of all his power. 

During the latter part of April, certain important military 
operations were effected. Washington, the safety of which 
was the first consideration, was relieved from immediate dan- 
ger; Fortress Monroe, commanding the water gateway of 
Virginia, was reinforced and held ; the government works at 
Harper's Ferry were blown up and burned by Lieutenant 
Jones, in command of a company of regulars, moved by the 
intelligence of an advance of a large confederate force; Cairo, 
Illinois, an important strategic point at the confluence of the 
Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, had been occupied by gov- 
ernment forces, and the blockade was extended so as to em- 
brace the states of Virginia and North Carolina. Then began 
organization. On the twenty-seventh of April, Adjutant 
General Thomas made the folloAvinu announcement of new 
military departments: First, The military department of 
Washington, including the District of Columbia, according to 
its original boundary, Fort Washington and the adjacent coun- 
try, and the state of Maryland as far as Bladensburgh, to be 
under the charge of Colonel Mansfield, with head-quarters at 
Washington. Second, The department of Annapolis, head- 
quarters at that city, and including the country for twenty 
miles on either side of the railroad between Annapolis and 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 307 

Washington, under command of General B. F. Butler, of the 
Massachusetts volunteers. Third, The department of Penn- 
sylvania, including that state, Delaware and all of Maryland 
not included in the other departments already mentioned, and 
with Major General Patterson in command. The extension 
of the department of Washington to the old limits of the dis- 
trict was for the purpose of including territory absolutely 
necessary for the defense of the capital. 

On the following tenth of May, another department was 
added to this list, including the states of Ohio, Indiana and 
Illinois, under the charge of General George B. McClellan. 
The object of this department was to maintain a defensive 
line on the Ohio River from "Wheeling to Cairo. 

On the twenty-ninth of April, Jefferson Davis convened his 
Congress at Montgomery, and sent them a message which 
was intended to be a justification of himself and his cause, 
before the country and the world. It was a document of rare 
ability, in its plausible presentation of the favorite southern 
doctrine of state rights, and its rehearsal of the pretended 
wrongs which the South had suffered at the hands of the 
North. It must have made a profound impression upon the 
great multitude of minds ready to receive it among his own 
people, and upon statesmen abroad who, from the first opening 
of the American difficulties, manifested a strange ignorance 
of the genius and structure of American institutions. 

It is interesting to notice here the attempt on the part, both 
of Mr; Lincoln and Mr. Davis, to argue the rightfulness of 
their respective positions, in a great number of their state pa- 
pers. Mr. Lincoln's old intellectual strucrfrle with Mr. Douo-- 
las had ceased, and Jefferson Davis was now his antagonist — 
a man of higher culture and deeper character. 

Mr. Davis, in his message, assumed the role of the wronged 
party. Notwithstanding the fact that he had seized all the 
property of the United States upon which he could lay his 
hands, and had, by bombardment, compelled the surrender of 
Fort Sumter, he tried to shift the burden of opening the Avar 
upon Mr. Lincoln, whose call for troops, weeks after a con* 



308 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

federate army was on its feet and actively gathering numbers, 
was the pretended cause of the convening of the rebel Con- 
gress. In this very message, indeed, he announces that there 
were already nineteen thousand men in different forts, and 
that sixteen thousand were on their way to Virginia. 

In the doctrine of state rights was the only justification of 
the rebellion; and it was necessary that Mr. Davis should 
labor to establish it. With him, a state was greater than the 
United States. The state was sovereign, and the Union was 
essentially subject. Whenever, therefore, any state should 
have a plausible pretext for dissolving its union with other 
states, it had a right to do so. Mr. Davis did not stop to 
consider that he could not establish a government on any such 
basis as this, and that the doctrine of state rights would, in 
the end, be just as fatal to his confederacy as he was endeav- 
oring to make it to the United States. On the other hand, 
Mr. Lincoln held the Union sovereign and the state subject. 
A state had no right to coerce a nation into dissolution, any 
more than a county had a right to force a state into dissolution. 
He maintained that the United States were a nation, one and 
indivisible, and that any attempt to dissolve it on the part of 
a state, or a combination of states, was treason. Here was 
where the Union and the new confederacy separated. The 
confederacy was a logical result of the doctrine of state rights, 
and its destruction, by all the power of the federal government, 
was the logical necessity of its contravention. Mr. Lincoln 
believed that a nation had a fundamental right to live, and 
that the United States were a nation. Mr. Davis believed 
that the United States were not a nation — or, if one — that it 
held its only right to live at the will of any state that might 
choose to exercise it. 

On the third of May, Mr. Lincoln found it necessary to call 
for forty-two thousand additional volunteers, to serve for three 
years, unless sooner discharged, and for an aggregate of twenty- 
two thousand seven hundred and fourteen men for different 
classes of service in the regular army. An additional call for 
eighteen thousand men to serve in the navy was also made in 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 309 

the same proclamation. The country gave quick response to 
this call, and the demand for army volunteers was soon an- 
swered to excess. 

The area of operations was rapidly spreading. Secessionists 
in and around St. Louis, Missouri, were plotting for the seizure 
of the arsenal in that city, but Captain (afterward General) 
Lyon promptly thwarted the scheme, and secured the arms 
for the government forces. A secession camp, forming in the 
same city, was captured, and many within it taken prisoners. 
The Governor of Missouri was disloyal, and did what he could 
to throw that state into the hands of the rebels ; and General 
Harney, for a short time in command of the military depart- 
ment of the West, so far aided his schemes as to agree with 
Sterling Price that the whole duty of maintaining order in the 
state should be intrusted to the state authorities. Harney 
was removed, and General Lyon put in his place, with a force 
for which he found abundant employment, and at the head of 
which he afterwards fell — one of the first and costliest sacri- 
fices of the war. 

During all the first part of May, a secession flag floated 
over a building in Alexandria, in sight of the capitol at 
"Washington; the rebel forces were gathering at Manassas 
Junction, and rebel troops held Harper's Ferry. On the 
twenty-second of May, General Butler took command of the 
new department of the South, with head-quarters at Fortress 
Monroe. Five days afterward, he issued his famous order 
declaring slaves "contraband of war." The phrase imbodied 
a new idea, which was the germ of a new policy, as well as 
the basis of a new name for the freed negro. General Butler 
had under command here about twelve thousand men. Con- 
federate troops were already gathering and fortifying in the 
vicinity, and on the tenth of June occurred the first consider- 
able battle of the war at Big Bethel. It was a badly man- 
aged affair on the part of the Union forces ; and, in the excited 
and expectant state of the public mind, produced a degree of 
discouragement in the country quite disproportioned to the 
importance of its results. Here fell Major Winthrop, a young 



310 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

man of great bravery and rare literary ability. The troo^ 
fought well, but were badly handled. Enough was learned, 
however, of the bravery of the Yankee, to give prophecy of 
fine results when the art of war should be better learned. 

These comparatively small and widely separated movements 
were but ripples shot out into the coves and reaches of treason 
from the tidal sweep of the loyal armies, crowding southward 
to dash against the grand front of the rebellion. The govern- 
ment had no lack of men ; but it suffered sadly for the want 
of arms to put into their hands. But they were armed in one 
way and another — some of them very poorly. The impatient 
people could not know how poorly, because it would expose 
the weakness of the government to the enemy ; so they clam- 
ored for a movement, and it was made. On the twenty-fourth 
of May, General Mansfield began his passage into Virginia. 
The gallant and lamented Colonel Ellsworth was sent with 
his regiment of Zouaves to Alexandria; and troops to the 
number of thirteen thousand were moved across the river, 
and set to work in the erection of forts for the defense of 
Washington. Colonel Ellsworth, on landing at Alexandria, 
without resistance, went personally to the Marshall House, 
kept by James Jackson, and mounting to the top, pulled down 
the secession flag with which Jackson had for weeks been in- 
sulting the authorities at Washington. On descending, the 
owner shot him dead, and was in turn immediately shot dead 
by a private named Biownell, who accompanied his Colonel. 

It is interesting to remember the profound impression which 
the death of this young and enthusiastic officer produced upon 
the country. He was among the first the nation gave to the 
war, and his name, with those of Greble and Winthrop, who 
fell at Big Bethel, and Lyon who afterward fell in Missouri, 
were embalmed in the fresh sensibilities of the people, and re- 
main there, fixed and fragrant, while thousands of those since 
fallen have found only weary and sickened hearts to rest in, 
or memories too sadly crowded with precious names to give 
them room. Ellsworth's death affected Mr. Lincoln with pe- 
culiar sorrow. He had known the young man well. At one 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 311 

time, Ellsworth was a student in Lincoln & Ilerndon's office; 
and he accompanied Mr. Lincoln on his journey to Washing- 
ton. The body of the young martyr was borne sadly back 
to Washington, and was received into the White House itself, 
where the funeral took place, Mr. Lincoln himself assuming 
the position of chief mourner. 

After the accumulation of a large army on the Virginia 
side of the Potomac, it was determined to push forward the 
forces then under the command of Major General McDowell, 
for a battle with the rebel army which had been gathered at 
Manassas. For this battle each side had been preparing with 
great industry. The enemy had withdrawn his forces from 
the occupation of Harper's Ferry, and that important point 
had passed into federal control. From every quarter he gath- 
ered in his troops, or held them within easy call, and waited 
for the attack. It began on the nineteenth, and ended on the 
twenty-first of July, in a most terrible rout of the Union 
forces. The whole army upon which the President and the 
people had rested such strong hope and expectation was broken 
in pieces, and came flying back toward Washington, panic- 
stricken, worn out, disorganized and utterly demoralized. 
They had fought bravely and well; but they w T ere not above in- 
fluences that have affected armies since time began, and they 
yielded to fears which made them uncontrollable. 

The loss of this battle, fought under the pressure of popu- 
lar impatience, cost the country a fearful amount of sacrifice. 
It greatly encouraged the rebels, their sympathizers abroad 
sent up a shout of triumph, and the loyal masses were put to 
such a test of their patriotism and determined bravery as they 
had never been subjected to. The work had all to be done 
again, under the most discouraging circumstances ; but when 
the case was reviewed, reason was found for gratitude that it 
hqd been no worse. Washington, at the close of the battle 
at Bull Run, was at the mercy of the rebels. It was well 
that they did not know this, or that, if they knew it, they 
were not m a condition to push on, and occupy what must 
have fallen into their hands. 



312 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Among all the millions to whom this event brought sorrow, 
there was not one who suffered so keenly as the tender-hearted 
and patient man who, walking back and forth between the 
"White House and the War Department, felt the great burden 
of it all upon his own shoulders. He had need of the full 
exercise of his abounding faith in Providence to sustain him 
in that dark and perilous hour. He could not but feel that 
peace had been put far away by the result of the battle ; but 
he learned afterwards that Providence had wise and beneficent 
designs in that result. Peace conquered then, would have 
been peace with the cause of the war retained. Peace then 
would have left four million slaves in bondage. Peace then 
would have left the "house divided against itself" still, with 
the possibility of an indefinite extension of slavery. It was 
not so to be. A thousand plagues were yet to come before 
the public mind would be ready to let the bondman go. 

Soon after the original movement into Virginia, the Post- 
master-general suspended all postal service in the seceded 
states ; and at this time active movements commenced in Gen- 
eral McClellan's department. Under the auspices of Gov- 
ernor Magoffin of Kentucky — one of the governors who had 
sent back an insulting response to the President's original call 
for troops — his Inspector-general Buckner organized a force 
in Kentucky, which was watched with much anxiety by the 
loyal people on the other side of the Ohio, because it was 
believed to be intended for the rebel service. Buckner visited 
General McClellan at Cincinnati on the eighth of June, and 
on the twenty-second of that month he reported to Governor 
Magoffin the terms of a convention into which he had entered 
with the federal general. Briefly lw3 reported that General 
McClellan stipulated that Kentucky should be regarded by 
the United States as neutral territory, even though southern 
troops should occupy it. In such a case, the United States 
should call upon Kentucky to remove such troops, and if she 
should fail to do so within a reasonable time, then the General 
claimed the same right of occupation accorded to the southern 
troops, and promised to withdraw so soon as those troops 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 313 

\ 
should be expelled. Whether this was a true statement of 

the agreement or not, General McClellan did nothing incon- 
sistent with it, although he afterwards denied Buckner's state- 
ment of the results of the consultation. The occupation and 
defense of important points upon the bank of the riveL' oppo- 
site Cincinnati Avere abandoned, and, in a letter to Mr. Crit- 
tenden, he disclaimed all responsibility for the intrusion of a 
body of General Prentiss' men, who had landed on the Ken- 
tucky shore and brought away a secession flag. The General, 
it was evident, did not comprehend the character of the re- 
bellion, or he failed to recognize the fact that in such a struggle 
there could be no such thing as the neutrality which Ken- 
tucky was professedly desirous to maintain. 

The tenderness of the government, as well as of the gen- 
erals it had appointed, toward slavery, is worthy of note at 
this juncture. Mr. Lincoln had always taken great pains to 
show that he respected the legal rights of slavery under the 
Constitution. The republicans, in national convention and in 
Congress, had done the same. The three democratic generals 
it had placed in command — Butler, Patterson and McClellan — 
went a step further, and promised in advance that they would 
not only not interfere with slavery, but would assist the rebels 
in putting down a slave insurrection. General Butler, of the 
three, experienced a healthy reaction from this devotion to 
slavery at an early day. 

"Western Virginia was loyal, and, on the seventeenth of 
June, in convention at Wheeling, repudiated the ordinance of 
secession passed by the state convention, and promptly inau- 
gurated a new state government, with Francis H. Pierpoint for 
Governor. This was the first step toward "reconstruction," 
and il was taken under the direct sanction of Mr. Lincoln. 
The doctrine of secession thus early returned to plague the 
inventors. Rebel forces and rebel sympathizers were of course 
in Western Virginia ; and a campaign was inaugurated there, 
early in June, for the expulsion of these forces from the terri- 
tory. General Rosecrans and General Thomas A. Morris 
had this campaign in hand, and, on the twenty-third of June, 



314 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

General McClellan arrived. On the tenth of July, a skirmish 
was had with the rebels at Laurel Hill, and two days later 
the battle of Rich Mountain was fought, which resulted in the 
defeat and surrender of the rebel Colonel Pegram, with a 
thousand men. This did not compass the successes of the 
day. General Garnett who was bringing supports to Gene- 
ral Pegram was pursued, his forces routed, and himself killed. 
This temporarily cleaned out the enemy from Western Vir- 
ginia. General McClellan's dispatch to the war department 
announcing this very grateful victory was direct, spirited and 
well written, and immediately attracted the attention of the 
country. These successes in Western Virginia, together with 
the Napoleonic manner of their announcement, paved the way 
to that wonderful popular confidence which was afterward ac- 
corded to the commanding general, although he had very little 
to do in planning the campaign in which they were won, or 
the battles by which they were secured. 

Congress, according to the proclamation of the President, 
had assembled on the fourth of July, and was of course 
in session when the successes in Western Virginia were 
achieved, as well as when the rout of the army at Bull 
Run occurred. Indeed, the presence of the members at 
Washington added to the pressure which precipitated the 
movement that resulted so disastrously. Some of the mem- 
bers went out to see the fight. One of these was taken 
prisoner, and others took such a lesson in retreating as to 
cure them of all curiosity concerning battles and battle-fields 
forever. 

On the meeting of Congress, the President communicated a 
message which was received with profound interest, both by 
Congress and the whole country. The opening portions of 
the document were strictly historical of the events of the re- 
bellion up to the date of its utterance ; and as the most of 
these events have already found record in these pages, their 
reproduction is not necessary. 

By opening fire upon Sumter, when it had not "a gun in 
sight, or in expectancy, to return their fire, save only the few 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 315 

in the fort sent to that harbor years before for their own pro- 
tection," he declared that the rebels had forced upon the coun- 
try the distinct issue — immediate dissolution or blood. "And 
this issue," the message proceeds, "embraces more than the 
fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family 
of man the question whether a constitutional republic or de- 
mocracy — a government of the people by the same people — 
can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity, against its own 
domestic foes. It presents the question whether discontented 
individuals, too few in numbers to control administration ac- 
cording to organic law in any case, can always, upon the pre- 
tences made in this case, or on any other pretences, or arbi- 
trarily, without any pretence, break up their government, and 
thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth. 
It forces us to ask, ' Is there in all republics, this inherent and 
fatal weakness?' 'Must a government, of necessity, be too 
strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to main- 
tain its own existence ? ' " 

The attempt of some of the border states to maintain a sort 
of armed neutrality — as illustrated in the case of Kentucky — 
the arming of those states to keep the forces on either side 
from passing over their territory — he declared would be dis- 
union completed, if for a moment entertained. It would be 
building " an impassable wall along the line of separation, and 
yet, not quite an impassable one, for, under the guise of neu- 
trality, it would tie the hands of Union men, and freely pass 
supplies from among them to the insurrectionists, which it 
could not do as an open enemy. At a stroke it woidd take 
all the trouble off the hands of secession, except only what 
proceeds from the external blockade." 

Soon after the first call for militia, liberty was given to the 
commanding general to suspend the privilege of the writ of 
habeas corpus in certain cases, or "to arrest and detain with- 
out resort to the ordinary processes of law such individuals as 
he might deem dangerous to the public safety." Although 
this liberty was indulged very sparingly, there were not 
wanting men unfriendly to the administration who made it the 



316 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

subject of factious complaint. This fact Mr. Lincoln noticed, 
and this was his defense: 

" The whole of the laws which were required to be faithfully executed 
were being resisted, and failing of execution, in nearly one-third of the 
states. Must they be allowed to finally fail of execution, even had it 
been perfectly clear that by the use of the means necessary to their 
execution some single law, made in such extreme tenderness of the cit- 
izen's liberty, that, practically, it relieves more of the guilty than the 
innocent, should, to a very limited extent, be violated? To state the 
question more directly : are all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and 
the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated ? Even 
in such a case, would not the official oath be broken, if the government 
should be overthrown when it was believed that disregarding the single 
law would tend to preserve it ? But it was not believed that this ques- 
tion was presented. It was not believed that any law was violated. 
The provision of the Constitution that 'the privilege of the writ of 
habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless, when in cases of rebellion 
or invasion, the public safety may require it,' is equivalent to a provi- 
sion — is a provision — that such privilege may be suspended when, in case 
of rebellion or invasion, the public safety does require it. It was de- 
cided that we have a case of rebellion, and that the public safety does 
require the qualified suspension of the privilege of the writ, which was 
authorized to be made. Now it is insisted that Congress, and not the 
Executive, is invested with this power. But the Constitution itself is 
silent as to which or who is to exercise this power; and as the provision 
was plainly made for a dangerous emergency, it cannot be believed the 
framers of the instrument intended that, in every case, the danger should 
run its course until Congress could be called together, the very assem- 
bling of which might be prevented, as was intended in this case by the 
rebellion." 

After recommending; that Congress make the contest a short 
and decisive one, by placing at the control of the government 
four hundred thousand men and four hundred million dollars,* 
and stating- that a right result at that time would be Avorth 
more to the world than ten times the men and ten times the 
money, Mr. Lincoln took up the doctrine of state rights, 
state sovereignty, the right of secession, &c, and argued 
against it at length, doubtless as a reply to the message of 
Mr. Davis, and to place before the world, whose governments 
and peoples -were sitting in judgment on the case, the grounds 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 317 

of the national struggle with the rebellion. The passage is 
too important to be abbreviated: 

"It might seem, at first thought, to be of little difference whether the 
present movement at the South be called "secession," or "rebellion." 
The movers, however, will understand the difference. At the begin- 
ning, they knew they could never raise their treason to any respectable 
magnitude by any name which implies violation of law. They knew 
their people possessed as much of moral sense, as much of devotion to 
law and order, and as much pride in, and reverence for the history and 
government of their common country, as any other civilized and patri- 
otic people. They knew they could make no advancement directly in 
the teeth of these strong and noble sentiments. Accordingly, they 
commenced by an insidious debauching of the public mind. They in- 
vented an ingenious sophism, which, if conceded, was fallowed by per- 
fectly logical steps, through all the incidents, to the complete destruction 
of the Union. The sophism itself is, that any state of the Union may, 
consistently with the national Constitution, and therefore lawfully and 
peacefully,, withdraw from the Union without the consent of the Union, 
or of any other state. The little disguise that the supposed right is to 
be exercised only for just cause, themselves to be the sole judges of its 
justice, is too thin to merit any notice. 

"With rebellion thus sugar-coated they have been drugging the pub- 
lic mind of their section for more than thirty years, and until at length 
they have brought many good men to a willingness to take up arms 
against the government the day after some assemblage of men have 
enacted the farcical pretence of taking their state out of the Union, 
who could have been brought to no such thing the day before. 

" This sophism derives much, perhaps the whole, of its currency from 
the assumption that there is some omnipotent and sacred supremacy 
pertaining to a state — to each state of our Federal Union. Our states 
have neither more nor less power than that reserved to them in the 
Union by the Constitution — no one of them ever having been a state 
out of the Union. The original ones passed into the Union even before 
they cast off their British colonial dependence ; and the new ones each 
came into the Union directly from a condition of dependence, excepting 
Texas. And even Texas, in its temporary independence, was never 
designated a state. The new ones only took the designation of states 
on coming into the Union, while that name was first adopted by the old 
ones in and by the Declaration of Independence. Therein the " United 
Colonies" were declared to be "free and independent states;" but, even 
then, the object plainly was not to declare their independence of one 
another, or of the Union, but directly the contrary, as their mutual 
pledge and their mutual action before, at the time, and afterwards, 



318 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

abundantly show. The express plighting of faith by each and all of 
the original thirteen in the Articles of Confederation, two years later, 
that the Union shall be perpetual, is most conclusive. Having never 
been states, either in substance or in name, outside of the Union, whence 
this magical omnipotence of "state rights," asserting a claim of power 
to lawfully destroy the Union itself? Much is said about the ''sover- 
eignty " of the states ; but the word even is not in the national Consti- 
tution; nor, as is believed, in any of the state constitutions. What is 
"sovereignty" in the political sense of the term? "Would it be far 
wrong to define it " a political community without a political superior?" 
Tested by this, no one of our states except Texas, ever Avas a sover- 
eignty. And even Texas gave up the character on coming into the 
Union; by which act she acknowledged the Constitution of the United 
States and the laws and treaties of the United States made in pursu- 
ance 'of the Constitution, to be for her the supreme law of the land. 
The states have their status in the Union, and they have no other legal 
status. If they break from this, they can only do so against law and by 
revolution. The Union, and not themselves, separately, procured their 
independence and their liberty. By conquest or purchase the Union gave 
eech of them whatever of independence or liberty it has. The Union 
is older than any of the states, and, in fact, it created them as state* 
Originally some dependent colonies made the Union, and, in turn, the 
Union threw off their old dependence for them, and made them states, 
such as they are. Not one of them ever had a state constitution inde- 
pendent of the Union. Of course, it is not forgotten that all the new 
states framed their constitutions before they entered the Union; never- 
theless dependent upon, and preparatory to, coming into the Union. 

" Unquestionably the states have the powers and rights reserved to 
them in and by the national Constitution : but among these, surely, are 
not included all conceivable powers, however mischievous or destruct- 
ive ; but, at most, such only as were known in the world, at the time, 
as governmental powers; and, certainly, a power to destroy the Govern- 
ment itself had never been known as a governmental — as a merely 
administrative power. This relative matter of national power and 
state rights, as a principle, is no other than the principle of generality 
and locality. Whatever concerns the whole should be confided to the 
whole — to the general government; while whatever concerns only the 
state should be left exclusively to the state. This is all there is of 
original principle about it. Whether the national Constitution in de- 
fining boundaries between the two has applied the principle with exact 
accuracy, is not to be questioned. We are all bound by that defining, 
without question. 

" What is now combated, is the position that secession is consistent 
with the Constitution— is lawful and peaceful. It is not contended that 



LIFE OF ABliAIIAM LINCOLN. 319 

there is any express law for it; and nothing should ever he implied as 
law which leads to unjust or absurd consequences. The nation pur- 
chased with money the countries out of which several of these states 
■were formed ; is it just that they shall go off without leave and without 
refunding? The nation paid very large sums (in the aggregate, I be- 
lieve, nearly a hundred millions) to relieve Florida of the aboriginal 
tribes; is it just that she shall now be off without consent, or without 
making any return? The nation is now in debt for money applied to 
the benefit of these so-called seceding states in common with the rest; 
is it just either that creditors shall go unpaid, or the remaining states 
pay the whole? A part of the present national debt was contracted to 
pay the old debts of Texas; is it just that she shall leave and pay no 
part of this herself ? 

'■Again, if one state may secede, so may another; and when all shall 
have seceded, none is left to pay the debts. Is this quite just to credi- 
tors? Did we notify them of this sage view of ours when we borrowed 
their money? If we now recognize this doctrine by allowing the seced- 
ers to go in peace, it is difficult to see what we can do if others choose 
to go, or to extort terms upon which they will promise to remain. 

" The seceders insist that our Constitution admits of secession. They 
have assumed to make a national constitution of their own, in wdiich, 
of necessity, they have either discarded or retained the right of seces- 
sion, as they insist it exists in ours. If they have discarded it, they 
thereby admit that on principle it ought not to exist in ours; if they 
have retained it, by their own construction of ours they show that, to 
be consistent, they must secede from one another wdienever they shall 
find it the easiest w r ay of settling their debts, or effecting any other 
selfish or unjust object. The principle itself is one of disintegration, 
and upon which no government can possibly endure. 

M If all the states save one should assert the power to drive that one 
out of the Union, it is presumed the whole class of seceder politicians 
would at once deny the power, and denounce the act as the greatest 
outrage upon state rights. But suppose that precisely the same act, 
instead of being called 'driving the one out,' should be called 'the seced- 
ing of the others from that one,' it would be exactly what the seceders 
claim to do, unless, indeed, they make the point that the one, because it is 
a minority, may rightfully do what the others, because they are a ma- 
jority, may not rightfully do. These politicians are subtle, and profound 
on the rights of minorities. They are not partial to that power which 
made the Constitution, and speaks from the preamble, calling itself 'We, 
the people.'" 

The popular government of the United States, Mr. Lincoln 
said, had been called an experiment. Two points of the ex- 



320 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

periment had already been settled ; the government had been 
established, and it had been administered. One point remained 
to be established : its successful maintenance against a formid- 
able internal attempt to overthrow it. It remained to be dem- 
onstrated to the world that those who could fairly earry an 
election could also suppress a rebellion — "that ballots are the 
rightful and peaceful successors to bullets, and that when bal- 
lots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no 
successful appeal back to bullets — that there can be no suc- 
cessful appeal, except to ballots themselves, at succeeding 
elections." Another justification of the war in which he was 
engaged he found in that article of the Constitution which 
provides that "the United States shall guarantee to every 
state in this Union a republican form of government." If a 
state might lawfully go out of the Union, it might also, having 
gone out, discard the republican form of government, " so that 
to prevent its going out is an indispensable means to the end 
of maintaining the guarantee mentioned ; and when an end is 
lawful and obligatory, the indispensable means to it are also 
lawful and obligatory." 

Congress was ready to do all that, the President desired, 
and even more. Instead of four hundred million dollars, they 
placed at his disposal five hundred millions, and instead of 
confining his levy of troops to four hundred thousand, they 
gave him liberty to call out half a million. They also legal- 
ized all the steps he had thus far taken for the suppression 
of the rebellion, and labored in all ways to strengthen his 
hands and encourage his heart. These measures were passed 
in the presence, and against the protest, of secessionists, who 
still held their places in both houses of Congress. Burnett 
of Kentucky and Reid and Norton of Missouri, in the House, 
afterwards proved their treason by engaging directly in the 
rebellion. Breckinridge and Powell of Kentucky and Polk 
and Johnson of Missouri, in the Senate, were known at the 
time to be anything but loyal. And they had sympathizers 
who, under any other government, would have been arrested 
and held, if not treated with still greater severity. Vallan- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 321 

cligham of Ohio was afterwards sent into the rebel lines for 
treason, and it is undoubtedly true that Kennedy of Maryland, 
Bayard of Delaware, Bright of Indiana, and Ben Wood of 
New York had personal reason for feeling that he had been 
very harshly used. Yet it was best that these men should be 
where they were, to bicker and bite, and illustrate the spirit 
of that incorporate infamy — a slaveholders' rebellion. Such 
toleration illustrated alike the strength and moderation of the 
government. Some of these men were permitted to rise in 
the places they had justly forfeited, and, with perjured lips, to 
talk treason — to complain of arbitrary arrests when they were 
suffered to go and come, and scheme and brawl with perfect 
liberty, in the streets of the national capital. 

There was plenty of treasonable talk in Congress, but no 
treasonable action. The party friends of the government 
were in a majority, and they were aided by numbers of loyal 
democrats. The schemes of finance recommended by Mr. 
Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, were adopted essen- 
tially as recommenced, a moderate confiscation act was passed, 
and a resolution adopted by the House — introduced by Mr. 
Crittenden of Kentucky — that the war had been forced 
upon the country by the disunionists of the southern states, 
then in revolt against the constitutional government and 
in arms around the capital: that Congress, banishing all 
feeling of passion or resentment, would recollect only its duty 
to the whole country: that the war was not waged on the 
part of the government in the spirit of oppression, nor for. 
any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of over- 
throwing or interfering with the rights or established institu- 
tions of the states; but to defend and maintain the supremacy 
of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the 
dignities, equality and rights of the several states unimpaired: 
and that as soon as those objects were accomplished, the war 
ought to cease. During the session, Mr. Trumbull of Illinois 
introduced a bill in the Senate to emancipate all the slaves in 
the rebel states. This was a prophecy and a threat of what 
would come as the reward of rebel contumacy. 
21 



322 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The session closed on the sixth clay of August, having lasted 
but little more than a month. The President found himself 
abundantly supported, and the means in his hands for carry- 
ing on the great contest. 

The message of Mr. Lincoln to this extra session of Con- 
gress, taken with his inaugural, did much to overcome the 
unpleasant impressions produced by the speeches he made on 
his way to Washington. There is no question that those 
speeches seriously damaged him, and shook the confidence of 
the country in his ability. The inaugural and the message 
had the old ring in them, and betrayed something of those 
qualities which had originally attracted the country to him. 

It is true, however, that he did not spend much time in 
writing his messages. His later efforts in this line did not 
bear always so many marks of painstaking as the first. He 
had a great aversion to what he called "machine writing," 
and always used the fewest words possible to exj:>ress his 
meaning. Mr. Defrees, the public printer, an intimate per- 
sonal friend of Mr. Lincoln, testifies that he made the fewest 
corrections in his proof of any man he ever knew. He knew 
nothing of the rules of punctuation, yet the manuscripts of 
very few of our public men are as well punctuated as his uni- 
formly were, though his use of commas was excessive. 

Mr. Defrees, being on easy terms with Mr. Lincoln, took 
it upon him to suggest with relation to his first message that 
he was not preparing a campaign document, or delivering a 
stump speech in Illinois, but constructing an important state 
paper, that would go down historically to all coining time; 
and that, therefore, he did not consider the phrase, "sugar- 
coated," which he had introduced, as entirely a becoming and 
dignified one. "Well, Defrees," said Mr. Lincoln, good na- 
turedly, "if you think the time will ever come when the 
people will not understand what "sugar-coated" means, I'll 
alter it; otherwise, I think I'll let it go." To make people 
understand exactly what he meant, was his grand aim. Be- 
yond that, he had not the slightest ambition to go. 

To close this chapter, it only remains to record the relief 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 323 

of Major General McDowell, a worthy but unfortunate officer, 
and the appointment of General McCIellan to the command 
of the army of the Potomac. The country had been attracted 
to McCIellan by his dispatches from Western Virginia. 
General Scott favored him, and to him was accordingly as- 
signed the work of re-organizing the shattered army. The 
public hope was ready to cling somewhere, and the public 
heart gave itself to McCIellan with an enthusiastic devotion 
rarely accorded to any man. His pictures were in all the 
windows of the shops, and on all the center tables of all the 
drawing-rooms in the land. If he had done but little before 
to merit this confidence — if he did but little afterwards to jus- 
tify it — he, at least, served at that time to give faith to the 
people, and furnish a rallying point for their patriotic service. 
For three months, under his faithful and assiduous supervi- 
sion, the organization of troops went on, until he had at his 
command a magnificent army which needed only to be prop- 
erly led to be victorious. 



CHAPTER XX. 

The victory of the rebels at Bull Run was singularly barren 
of material results to them. It did not encourage the disloyal 
masses of the country more than it filled with new determin- 
ation the loyal people who opposed them. They were as 
badly punished as the troops they had defeated, and could 
take no advantage of their victory; and they failed to bring 
nearer the day of foreign recognition for which they were 
laboring and longing. 

This matter of foreign recognition was a very important 
one to Mr. Davis and his confederates. That he expected it, 
and had reason to expect it, there is no question. Hostilities 
had hardly opened when the British and French governments, 
acting in concert, recognized the government established at 
Montgomery as a belligerent power. If this was not a 
pledge of friendliness, and a promise of recognition, nothing 
could have been, for the proceeding was unprecedented. The 
United States was a power in friendly Intercourse with these 
two great powers of Europe, through complete diplomatic re- 
lations. Without a word of warning, without a victory on 
the part of the insurgents, without a confederate fleet afloat, 
with only a half of the slave states in insurrection, these 
two governments, with the most indecent haste, gave their 
moral support to the enemies of the United States by recog- 
nizing a portion of its people engaged in an insurrection which 
the government had not yet undertaken to suppress — as a 
belligerent power, with just the same rights on land and sea 
as if they were an established government. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 325 

But for the decided position assumed by Mr. Lincoln, 
through his accomplished Secretary, Mr. Seward, the rebel 
government would certainly have had an early and full recog- 
nition. England and France were, without doubt, very 
friendly to the United States; but they would have been 
friendlier to two governments than to one. In his instruc- 
tions to Mr. Charles Francis Adams, on his departure to rep- 
resent the government at the court of St. James, Mr. Seward 
said : 

"If, as the President does not at all apprehend, you shall unhappily 
find Her Majesty's government tolerating the application of the so-called 
seceding states, or wavering about it, you will not leave them to suppose, 
for a moment, that they can grant that application, and remain the 
friends of the United States. You may even assure them promptly, in 
that case, that, if they determine to recognize, they may, at the same 
time, prepare to enter into an alliance with the enemies of this republic. 
You alone will represent your country at London, and you will represent 
the whole of it there. When you are asked to divide that duty with 
others, diplomatic relations between the government of Great Britain 
and this government will be suspended, and will remain so until it shall 
be seen which of the two is most strongly intrenched in the confidence 
of their respective nations and of mankind." 

Against the recognition of the rebels as a belligerent power, 
Mr. Adams was directed to make a decided and energetic 
protest; and when, on the fifteenth of June, the representa- 
tives of England and France at Washington applied to Mr. 
Seward for the privilege of reading to him certain instructions 
they had received from their governments, he declined to hear 
them officially until he had had the privilege of reading them 
privately. This privilege was accorded to him ; and then he 
declined to receive any official notice of the documents. Four 
days afterwards, he wrote a letter to Mr. Adams, informing 
him of the nature of the instructions, which were prefaced 
by a statement of the decision of the British government that 
this country was divided into two belligerent parties, of which 
the government represented one ; and that the government of 
Great Britain proposed to assume the attitude of a neutral 
between them. 



326 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Touching this decision, Mr. Seward said that the govern- 
ment of the United States could not debate it with the gov- 
ernment of Her Majesty — much less consent to receive the 
announcement of a decision thus derogating from the sover- 
eignty of the United States — a decision at which it had 
arrived without conferring with us upon the question. "The 
United States" said Mr. Seward, "are still solely and exclu- 
sively sovereign, within the territories they have lawfully 
acquired and long possessed, as they have always been. They 
are living under the obligations of the law of nations and of 
treaties with Great Britain, just the same now as heretofore ; 
they are, of course, the friend of Great Britain; and they 
insist that Great Britain shall remain their friend now, just as 
she has hitherto been. Great Britain, by virtue of these re- 
lations, is a stranger to parties and sections in this country, 
whether they are loyal to the United States or not; and 
Great Britain can neither rightfully qualify the sovereignty 
of the United States, nor concede nor recognize any rights 
or interests or power, of any party, state or section, in con- 
travention to the unbroken sovereignty of the federal Union. 
What is now seen in this country is the occurrence, by no 
means peculiar, but frequent in all countries, more frequent in 
Great Britain than here, of an armed insurrection, engaged 
in attempting to overthrow the regularly constituted and es- 
tablished government. But these incidents by no means con- 
stitute a state of war, impairing the sovereignty of the gov- 
ernment, creating belligerent sections, and entitling foreign 
states to intervene or to act as neutrals between them, or in 
any other way to cast off their laAvful obligations to the nation 
thus, for the moment, disturbed. Any other principle than 
this would be to resolve government everywhere into a thing 
of accident and caprice, and ultimately all human society into 
a state of perpetual war." 

Instructions corresponding with these were sent to our rep- 
resentatives at the French and other European courts. These 
governments were plainly given to understand that our gov- 
ernment considered the difficulty with the slaveholding states 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 327 

to be exclusively its own — that it was purely a domestic re- 
bellion, which it proposed to extinguish by its own power, 
and one in which foreign governments had no right to inter- 
meddle. Our ministers were told by Mr. Seward that they 
oould not be too decided or explicit in making known to the 
governments at which they represented us, that there was not 
then, and would not be, any idea existing in the government 
of suffering a dissolution of the Union to take place, in any 
way whatever. 

Throughout all the war that followed, England and France 
maintained their most unjustifiable and cruel recognition of 
the belligerent rights of the rebels — unjustifiable, because it 
was an unfriendly act toward a friendly power, on behalf of 
a rebellion whose forces were still unorganized, and whose 
suppression the government had hardly entered upon; and 
cruel, because it encouraged the rebels to persevere in a war 
which could only end in defeat to them, and which was so 
prolonged that it made a desolation of their whole country. 
There is probably nothing more morally certain than that the 
expectation of full recognition by England and France, on the 
part of Mr. Davis and his people, helped to continue the 
struo-o-lc of the rebellion with the government, until tens of 
thousands of loyal and disloyal lives were needlessly sacrificed. 
The act was unfriendly to this government ; it was a cruelty 
to the hapless insurgents it deceived, for the promise it con- 
tained was never redeemed, and would have accomplished 
nothing if it had been ; and it was a great blunder, from which 
those blundering governments have retreated, amid the jeers 
of the nations of the world, and the shuffling apologies of 
their own people. This sympathy with the rebellion on the 
part of these foreign governments is something not to be for- 
gotten, because we are to measure by it the magnanimity of 
Mr. Lincoln in the treatment of international questions arising 
afterwards. This sympathy is to-day denied; it was then 
blatant and bellicose. An American could not pass through 
England without insult; he could not speak for the national 
cause in England without a mob. England, or all of England 



328 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

that had a voice, rejoiced in rebel successes and federal defeats, 
and garbled and qualified all the news which favored the 
prospects of national success. Whatever may be the profes- 
sions of England now, no true American can forget that all 
the influence she dared to give in favor of the rebellion was 
given, beginning promptly at the start; and that her posi- 
tion rendered the task of subduing the rebellion doubly se- 
vere. Whatever may be the professions of her people now, 
no true American will forget the insults that were heaped 
upon his countrymen abroad whenever an allusion was made 
to the national difficulties, and heaped upon the country by 
the issues of a press that represented the British people, 
and persistently misrepresented our own. It was not, of 
course, to be expected that monarchies would be friendly to 
the great prosperity of democracies, or that they would give 
them their open sympathy and co-operation in difficulty; but 
the latter should be spared receiving the hypocrisies of the 
former as courtesies; and, after having been compelled to 
drink of gall for four years, should be permitted to remember 
that it was gall, and to make the best of it, without being per- 
sistently assured that it was honey. 



The opening of the war found Colonel John C. Fremont in 
Europe; and he, with a large number of loyal Americans, 
hastened home to give their services to their country. Colonel 
Fremont, defeated as the republican candidate for the presi- 
dency four years before the election of Mr. Lincoln, had had 
military experience, and was recognized as a popular man, 
who would rally to his command, at the West, large numbers 
of soldiers, especially among the German population of the 
region. He received the appointment of Major-General, and 
on the same day (July 25th,) that General McClellan arrived 
in Washington to take command of the Army of the Poto- 
mac, he arrived at St. Louis, and entered upon the command 
of the Department of the West, to which he had been assigned. 

Before General Fremont arrived at St. Louis, a battle was 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 329 

fought on AVilson's Creek by General Lyon and General 
Sigel, with a large force under the command of Ben McCul- 
loch. It was the second considerable battle of the war, and 
resulted in the death of General Lyon himself, and the final 
orderly retreat of the federal forces under Sigel. General 
Lyon had inflicted, with his little force of six thousand men, 
such injury upon McCulloch's twenty-two thousand, that the 
latter could not pursue; and, on the whole, there was no 
special discouragement as the result of the defeat. 

General Fremont's name had a great charm for the western 
masses, and especially for the Germans ; and volunteers in 
large numbers sought service under him. His campaign, 
upon the organization of which he entered with great energy, 
contemplated not only the restoration of order in Missouri, 
but the reclaiming the control of the Mississippi River. For 
this latter object, he organized a gun-boat service, which was 
destined to play a very important part in the operations asso- 
ciated with the western inland waters. 

Missouri was in a condition of most unhappy disorder. It 
was a border slave state, containing many disunionists of its 
own, and abounding with secession emissaries from other 
states, determined to carry it over to the confederacy. Brother 
was arrayed against brother. Neighborhoods were distressed 
with deadly feuds. Murders were of every-day occurrence 
on every hand, and outrages of isvery kind were rife. The 
civil administration of the state was altogether unreliable ; 
and on the thirty-first of August, General Fremont issued 
a proclamation declaring martial law, defining the lines of 
the army of occupation, and threatening with death by the 
bullet all who should be found within those lines with arms 
in their hands. Furthermore, the real and personal prop- 
erty of all persons in the state who should take up arms 
against the United States was declared confiscated to the 
public use, and their slaves, if they had any, were declared 
free men. 

This proclamation produced a strong effect upon the public 
mind. The proclaiming of freedom to the slaves of rebels 



380 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

struck the popular chord, particularly among thoroughly loyal 
men in the free states. Of course, it maddened all the sym- 
pathizers with the rebellion, infuriated the rebels themselves, 
and perplexed those loyal men who had upon their hands the 
task of so conducting affairs as to hold to their allegiance the 
border slave states which had not seceded. 

Mr. Lincoln did not approve some features of General Fre- 
mont's proclamation. As soon as he read it, he wrote, under 
date of September second, to the General, that there were two 
points in it which gave him anxiety. The first was, that, if 
he should shoot a man according to his proclamation, "the 
confederates would certainly shoot our best men in their hands 
in retaliation, and so, man for man, indefinitely." He therefore 
ordered him to allow no man to be shot under the proclama- 
tion without first having his (the President's) approbation or 
consent. The second cause of anxiety was that the para- 
graph relating to the confiscation of property and the libera- 
tion of slaves of traitorous owners would alarm Unionists at 
the South, and perhaps ruin the fair prospect of saving Ken- 
tucky to the Union. He, therefore, wished General Fremont, 
as of his own motion, so to modify his proclamation as to 
make it conformable to the confiscation act just passed by the 
extra session of Congress, which only freed such slaves as 
were engaged in the rebel service. Mr. Lincoln did not wish 
to interfere with General Fremont, or unreasonably to curtail 
his authority, although he had assumed an unwarrantable re- 
sponsibility in taking so important a step without consultation 
or notice. Congress had had that very matter in hand, and 
had embodied its opinion in an act. To this act he wished to 
have the General conform his proclamation, and that was all 
he desired. The wisdom of his criticism of the first point 
was proved by a document issued by the rebel Jeff Thomp- 
son on the same day he wrote it. "Jeff Thompson, Briga- 
dier General of the first military district of Missouri," acting 
under the state government, did "most solemnly promise" 
that for every soldier of the state guard, " or soldier of our 
allies, the armies of the confederate States," who should be 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 331 

put to death under the proclamation, he would u hang, draw 
and quarter a minion of Abraham Lincoln." 

General Fremont received the President's letter respectfully, 
and replied to it September eighth, stating the difficulties un- 
der which he labored, with communication with the govern- 
ment so difficult, and the development of perplexing events 
so rapid in the department under his command. As to the 
part of his proclamation concerning the slaves, he wished the 
President openly to order the change desired, as, if he should 
do it of his own motion, it would imply that lie thought him- 
self wrona\ and that he had acted without the reflection which 
the gravity of the point demanded. This the President did, 
iu a dispatch under date of September eleventh, in the words: 
"It is therefore ordered that the said clause of said proclama- 
tion be so modified, held, and construed, as to conform to, and 
not to transcend, the provisions on the same subject contained 
in the act of Congress entitled, ' An act to confiscate property 
used for insurrectionary purposes,' approved August 6, 1861 ; 
and that such act be published at length with this order." 
Before this order had been received, or on the day following 
its date, General Fremont, though acquainted with the Pres- 
ident's wishes, manumitted two slaves of Thomas L. Snead 
of St. Louis, in accordance with the terms of his proclama- 
tion. 

Although Mr. Lincoln desired General Fremont so to mod- 
ify his proclamation as to make it accordant with the act of 
Congress approved August sixth, it is hardly to be supposed 
that he did it solely out of respect to that act. Congressional 
acts that were passed under certain circumstances, could not 
be regarded as binding the hands of the executive under all 
circumstances; and when, in a state of war, circumstances 
were widely changing with the passage of every day, they 
Avould be a poor rule of military action. If he had believed 
that the time had come for the measure of liberating the slaves 
of rebels by proclamation, the act of Congress would not 
have stood in his way. This act was an embodiment of his 
policy at that time, and he used it for his immediate purpose. 



332 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The day after he gave his modifying order, he received a 
letter from Hon. Joseph Holt of Kentucky, in which that 
gentleman spoke of the alarm and condemnation with which 
the Union-loving citizens of that state had read the proclama- 
tion, and begged him to modify it by an order such as he had 
already issued. Judge Holt concluded his letter by say- 
in^: "The magnitude of the interest at stake, and my ex- 
treme desire that by no misapprehension of your sentiments or 
purposes shall the power and fervor of the loyalty of Ken- 
tucky be at this moment abated or chilled, must be my apology 
for the frankness with which I have addressed you." 

Complications in the personal relations of General Fremont 
and Colonel F. P. Blair, under whose personal and family in- 
fluence General Fremont had received his position, occurred 
at an early day. Colonel Blair doubtless thought that he 
had not sufficient weight in the General's counsels, and the 
General, doubtless, exercised his right, in choosing his own 
counselors. Whether he followed the advice of others, or 
was guided by his own judgment and impulses, he conducted 
himself quite as much after the manner of an eastern satrap 
as a republican commander. The public found it difficult to 
get at him, he kept around him a large retinue, and dispensed 
patronage and contracts w T ith a right royal hand. The most 
there is to be said of the matter, is, that it was his way. Pow- 
er was in his hands, a great work was before him, great per- 
sonal popularity attended him, and the sudden elevation was 
not without its effect upon him. Colonel Blair, who was the 
gallant commander of the First Missouri Volunteers, stood in 
a peculiar relation to him, and was not, by virtue of that re- 
lation, and by reason of a high and worthily won political and 
social position, to be lightly put aside. He came down upon 
his superior with a series of charges which covered a long 
catalogue of sins: — neglect of duty, unofficerlike conduct, diso- 
bedience of orders, conduct unbecoming a gentleman, extrava- 
gance and the waste of the public moneys, and despotic and 
tyrannical conduct. Among the specifications were Fremont's 
alleged failure to repair at once to St. Louis to enter upon his 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 333 

duties; his neglecting to reinforce Lyon and Mulligan: his 
suffering Brigadier-General Ilnrllmrt, "a common drunkard," 
to continue in command ; his refusal to see people who sought 
his presence on matters of urgent business; his violation of 
the presidential order in the matter of his proclamation and 
the manumissions under it; his persistency in keeping disrepu- 
table persons in his employ; and his unjust suppression of the 
St. Louis Evening News* General Fremont had no better 
opinion of Colonel Blair than Blair had of him, and placed 
him under arrest for alluding disrespectfully to superior officers. 

It was a very unhappy quarrel, and it is quite likely that 
there was blame upon both sides, though it occurred between 
men equally devoted to the sacred cause of saving the country 
to freedom and justice. It is not necessary to believe, with 
the enemies of General Fremont, that he found the country 
going to pieces,, and intended to place himself at the head of 
a hu.ge north-western fraction ; nor, with the enemies of Colo- 
nel Blair, that he was offended with his General because he 
could not have as good a chance at stealing from the govern- 
ment as was believed to be accorded to some of the General's 
California friends. Both were loyal men, both were anti- 
slavery men — Colonel Blair being quite the equal of General 
Fremont in this respect — and both wished to serve their coun- 
try. Mr* Lincoln always gave to each the credit due to his 
motives, and so> for refused to mingle in the general quarrel 
that grew out of the difficulty, that he kept the good-will of 
both sides, and compelled them to settle their own differences. 

On the sixth of September, General Grant, under General 
Fremont's command, occupied Paducah, Kentucky, at the 
mouth of the Tennessee River. Price and Jackson were 
raising a formidable army for service in Missouri, and, on the 
twelfth of September, compelled the surrender of Colonel 
Mulligan and his forces at Lexington. General Fremont at 
length took the field in person. On the eighth of October 
he left Jefferson City for Sedalia. As he advanced with his 
forces, Price retreated, until it was widely reported that he 
would give battle to the national forces at Springfield. Just 



334 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

as Fremont was making ready to engage the enemy, he was 
overtaken by an order relieving him of his command. He was 
succeeded by General Hunter; but Hunter's command was 
brief, and was transferred at an early day to General Halleck. 

General Fremont was relieved of his command by the Pres- 
ident not because of his 'proclamation, not because he hated 
slavery, and not because he believed him corrupt or vindictive 
or disloyal. He relieved him simply because he believed 
that the interests of the country, all things considered, would 
be subserved by relieving him and putting another man in 
his place. The matter was the cause of great excitement in 
Missouri, and of much complaint among the radical anti- 
slavery men of the country : but the imputations sought to be 
cast upon the President were not fastened to him ; and did not, 
four years later, when Fremont himself became a candidate 
for the presidency, prevent the warmest anti-slavery men from 
giving Mr. Lincoln their support. 

The federal army under General Hunter retreated without 
a battle ; and thus the campaign, inaugurated with great show 
and immense expense, was a flat failure. 

In the meantime, General Rosecrans finished up the work 
in Western Virginia that General McClellan had prematurely 
declared, accomplished, and the army of the Potomac, un- 
der the latter General, was swelling in numbers, and active in 
organization and discipline. General McClellan's popularity 
with the army was very great* They felt his organizing hand, 
and regarded him with the proudest confidence. The coun- 
try, however, was becoming impatient with him. He would 
spare no men for any outside enterprises, and still rolled up 
the numbers of his cumbersome forces, though good roads lay 
in front, and pleasant weather invited to action. Cta the twen- 
ty-ninth of August, General Butler, acting with a naval force 
under Commodore Stringham, took possession of the Hatteras 
forts, with a force which he had raised independently for the 
expedition. This gave great satisfaction to the country, and 
helped to keep up the popular courage under the depressing 
influence of delay on the part of the army of the Potomac. 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 335 

In the month of August, Munson's Hill, within view of 
the capitol, was occupied by the rebel forces ; and, though they 
were not strong in numbers, and took but limited pains to in- 
trench themselves, they remained there undisturbed untH 
nearly the last of September, when they left of their own ac- 
cord. On the twenty-first of October, there occurred a disas- 
trous battle and blunder at Ball's Bluff. It was a sad failure 
to fulfill the promise of a magnificent preparation for action. 
The country was disappointed and indignant. The number 
killed, drowned, wounded and captured was eleven hundred — 
full half that went into the action. Here Colonel Baker, the 
President's friend, fell; and, although General McClellan, in 
his report of the affair, said that, "situated as their troops 
were — cut off alike from retreat or reinforcements — five thou- 
sand against one thousand seven hundred — it was not possible 
that the issue could have been successful," the unmilitary mind 
will still inquire why, with an immense army but a few miles 
away, they were left or placed where reinforcement and re- 
treat were alike impossible ? 

General Scott did not like the looks or management of 
military affairs, and felt that his place was becoming unpleas- 
ant. Only a few days after the affair at Ball's Bluff, he made 
known to Mr. Lincoln his desire to be released from all active 
duties, in consequence of his increasing physical infirmity. In 
a letter dated November first, the President acceded to his 
request, and added: "The American people will hear with 
sadness and deep emotion that General Scott has withdrawn 
from the active control of the army, while the President and 
the unanimous Cabinet express their own and the nation's sym- 
pathy in his personal affliction, and their profound sense of the 
important public services rendered by him to his country, dur- 
ing his long and brilliant public career, among which will ever 
be gratefully distinguished his faithful devotion to the Consti- 
tution, the Union and the flag, when assailed by parricidal re- 
bellion." To do all possible honor to the noble veteran who 
had stood by the country when so many army officers had 
gone over to the rebellion under the appeal of sectional friend- 



336 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ship — an appeal made to him with all the persuasions that in- 
genuity could devise — the President and his entire Cabinet 
waited upon him at his residence ; and there, with his Secreta- 
ries around him, Mr. Lincoln read to him his letter. It was a 
orand moment in the old man's life. " This honor overwhelms 
me," he responded. "It overpays all services I have attempted 
to render to my country. If I had any claims bcfoi*e, they are 
all obliterated by this expression of approval by the President, 
with the unanimous support of the Cabinet. I know the 
President and this Cabinet well — I know that the country has 
placed its interests in this trying crisis in safe keeping. Their 
councils are wise ; their labors are untiring as they ax*e loyal, 
and their course is the right one." 

Thus, after fifty-three years of service in the armies of his 
country, General Scott went into his nobly earned retirement, 
with the blessing of his government and the blessing of his 
country upon his venerable head ; and it is one of the sweetest 
satisfactions of both to remember that he lived to see his 
country's enemies vanquished, and to hear of those who 
taunted him with faithlessness to his sectional friends, humbly 
seeking pardon of the government which they had outraged, 
and which he had so loyally supported. 

On General Scott's retirement, General McClellan held the 
highest rank in the army, and was intrusted with the chief 
command. 

During the month of November, the Union forces achieved 
several important and encouraging successes. South Carolina 
was invaded by an expedition under the joint command of 
General T. W. Sherman and Commodore Dupont, the latter 
of whom achieved a brilliant naval victory in Port Royal 
Harbor. Genera-Is Grant and McClernand, with a force of 
three thousand five hundred men, attacked a rebel camp in 
Missouri under General Polk, captured twelve guns, burned 
their camp, and took baggage, horses and many prisoners. 
The rebels were afterwards reinforced, and compelled the 
Union forces to return to their transports. Notwithstanding 
the fact that the rebels claimed a victory, the results were 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 337 

substantially with their assailants. General Buckncr, with 
whom McClellan was alleged to have made his treaty of 
neutrality, had thrown off his neutral mask, and was gath- 
ering an army of rebels in Kentucky, co-operating with Gen- 
eral Bragg who was invading the state with the determination 
to force it into secession. To meet and repel this invasion, 
General W. T. Sherman advanced with a larjre force to 
Bowling Green, while General Nelson, on his left, gained a 
decisive victory over the rebels under Colonel Williams. The 
various operations of the Union forces broke up the rebel 
project of subjugation, and re-invigorated the efforts of the 
Union men to hold the state to its loyalty. General Ilalleck 
was appointed to the command of the army of the West, and 
General Buell took General W. T. Sherman's command in 
Kentucky. 

The question of slavery was an ever-present one during all 
the operations of the year. The instructions given by the 
War Department to General Butler on the eighth of Auo-ust, 
were based upon " the desire of the President that all existing 
rights in all the states^ should be respected and maintained;" 
yet it was declared that " the rights dependent on the laws 
of the states within which military operations are conducted 
must necessarily be subordinate to the military exigencies cre- 
ated by the insurrection, if not wholly forfeited by the treas- 
onable conduct of the parties claiming them/' The difficulty 
of settling the claims of loyal masters was such that it was 
recommended to receive all fugitives, keep a record of them, 
and set them to work. Congress, the Secretary of War be- 
lieved, would provide for the repayment of loyal masters. 
On the departure of General T. W. Sherman on his expedi- 
tion to Port Royal, Mr. Cameron referred him to the letter 
to General Butler on this subject. He was directed to receive 
the services of any persons, whether fugitives from labor or 
not, who should offer them to the national government. These 
fugitives might be organized into "squads, companies, or oth- 
erwise," though that liberty was not intended to mean a gen- 
eral arming of them for military service. Loyal masters were 
22 



338 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

to be assured, meantime, that Congress would provide for them 
a just compensation for services thus lost to them. The time 
for emancipation had not come, in the opinion of the gov- 
ernment. That Mr. Lincoln desired it, none can doubt ; but 
he had undertaken to save the Union under the Constitution — 
to save the Union while preserving inviolate all the rights of 
all the states. He so understood the oath by which he was 
invested with power. Whatever might be his hatred of slav- 
ery — and it was the intensest passion of his life — he could only 
interfere with it as a military necessity — an essential means of 
savins the Union. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Early in November, an event occurred winch gave to our 
relations with England a very threatening aspect — an event 
which aroused the ire of the British people to a feverish pitch, 
encouraged the rebels, and filled with uneasiness the friends 
of the government. Although the blockade, under the ener- 
getic measures of the government, had become something 
very different from a blockade on paper, there were still many 
ports in the southern states which carried on a large contra- 
band commerce, through the agency of blockade-runners, the 
majority of which were owned in England, and navigated by 
British seamen. The capture of the Hatteras forts and of the 
defenses of Port Royal Harbor had shut two of these ports ; 
but Charleston, notwithstanding all the efforts of the block- 
ading fleet, continued to receive numbers of foreign vessels, 
and to dispatch them in safety. On the twelfth of October, 
the steamship Theodora shot out of that harbor, with two 
notorious rebels on board, James M. Mason and John Slidell, 
both perjured senators of the United States, and accredited 
by the Davis government respectively to the governments of 
England and France. They went to get recognition for their 
government. They went as enemies of the United States. 

Proceeding to Cuba, these emissaries took passage from 
Havana on the seventh of November, on the British mail 
steamer Trent, bound immediately for St. Thomas. On the 
following day, the Trent was hailed by the United States 
frigate San Jacinto, Captain "Wilkes, who directed a shot 



840 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

across her bows to bring her to. Then two officers and 
twenty men, more or less, put off from the San Jacinto, 
boarded the Trent, and, after a search, took out Mr. Mason 
and Mr. Slidell and their two secretaries, and, by force, against 
the protest of the Trent's officers, bore them to their vessel. 
These rebel emissaries Captain Wilkes brought to the United 
States, and they were lodged in Fort Warren. 

The excitement which this affair produced in both countries 
was intense, and but little favorable to its calm consideration. 
It was uncpiestionably a doubtful proceeding, and cool British 
blood came up to a boiling heat wherever in England or her 
provinces the intelligence of the affair was published. The 
news found the loyal people of America smarting under a 
sense of the injustice of the relation which England had as- 
sumed toward their struggle, and sensitive to the insults which 
their people had received from the British press and public. 
America came to care less for England afterward; but then 
she was sensitive in every fiber to her opinion, her lack of 
sympathy, and her covert aid to the rebellion. To the Amer- 
ican public the news of this capture was most grateful. They 
felt that whatever the laws of nations might be — and in these 
they were but little versed — it was morally right that these 
men should be in their power, and that it was morally wrong 
that any other power should have our traitors under its pro- 
tection. So they greeted the event with huzzas, and made 
a hero of the impulsive Captain Wilkes, who, though a most 
loyal and excellent person, Mas possessed by a zeal that some- 
times surpassed his discretion. 

The effect of this capture was, of course, foreseen by the 
government; and on the thirtieth of November Mr. Seward 
communicated to Mr. Adams, our minister in England, a 
statement of the facts, with the assurance that Captain Wilkes 
had acted without any instructions from the government, and 
that our government was prepared to discuss the matter m a 
friendly spirit, so soon as the position of the British govern- 
ment should be made known. Earl Eussell wrote under the 
same date to Lord Lyons, rehearsing his understanding of the 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 341 

facts of the case, and saying thai his government was "willing 
to believe that the naval officer who committed the agression 

CD 

Avas not acting in compliance with any authority from his 
government," because the government of the United Stales 
"must be fully aware that, the British government could not 
allow such an affront to the national honor to pass without 
full reparation." The minister expressed the hope that the 
United States would, of its own motion, release the commis- 
sioners, and make an apology. 

This was a very sensible and neighborly dispatch, but Earl 
Russell seems to have been subjected afterward to a pressure 
that changed his feelings and sharpened his policy, for, in a 
subsequent note, he transformed his polite dispatch into an 
insulting ultimatum. Lord Lyons was directed to wait seven 
days after having made his demand for reparation ; and then, 
in case no answer should be given, or any other answer should 
be given than a full compliance with the terms of the demand, 
he should pack up the archives of the legation, and return to 
London, bringing his archives with him. Usually an ulti- 
matum comes at the end of a lono- series of negotiations — after 
all the resources of diplomacy are exhausted — after there is 
plainly seen to be a warlike, or unreasonable, or contumacious 
spirit on the part of the power from which redress is sought. 
Earl Russell gave Mr. Lincoln his ultimatum at the start. It 
was an insult — a threat. It was uttered to gratify the war- 
like feeling of the British people. There is no question that 
they desired war; and when the British people are mentioned 
in this connection, those are meant who, in print and speech, 
represent them and assume to speak for them. War with 
America was looked upon in England as probable. Measures 
were taken to prepare for it. Indeed, many of the London 
journals regarded Avar as inevitable ; and when the peaceful 
nature of Mr. SeAvard's first dispatches were knoAvn, the 
Morning Post hastened to publish in large type an official 
contradiction of the neAVs. "The Avar will bo terrible," said 
the London journals. "It will begin by a recognition of the 
South, by the alliance of the South, by the assured triumph 



842 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of the South." That was the precise point. War was wanted 
by the people, that their cherished desire for the disruption of 
the Republic might be fulfilled ; and they were disappointed 
when they found that even an impertinent ultimatum could 
not bring it. 

If British statesmen sympathized with these views and feel- 
ings, — and some of them did, — it showed how poorly informed 
they were; for there was never anything in the difficulty, 
from the first, to give either government alarm. The British 
people found that there was a government at Washington, — 
calm, dignified and intelligent, not under the control of the 
mob at all, and showing, in the cool independence of its action, 
its entire freedom from the misdirected passions of the people. 
Only in the early approval of the Secretary of the Navy and 
of the lower House of Congress, awarded to Captain Wilkes, 
was there anything to give the British government cause of 
alarm, or ground of serious complaint ; and the news of these 
ill-advised indorsements reached England after the tempest 
of passion had been spent. 

On the twenty-sixth of December Mr. Seward addressed a 
note to Lord Lyons, in which he elaborately discussed all the 
questions growing out of the case. The paper was one of 
great moderation, and consummate, ability — indeed, one of 
the finest to which he ever gave utterance. It was a profound 
lesson in the law of nations, which could not be read without 
benefit by statesmen everywhere. By it the British govern- 
ment learned that there were two sides to the case, and that 
there was something to be said upon the side of Captain Wilkes ; 
for in it he argued most ingeniously, if not in all instances de- 
cisively, that Messrs. Mason and Slidell and their dispatches 
were contraband of war, that Captain Wilkes might lawfully 
stop and search the Trent for contraband persons and dis- 
patches, and that he had the right to capture the persons pre- 
sumed to have contraband dispatches. He did not, however, 
exercise the right of capture in the manner allowed and recog- 
nized by the laws of nations, as understood and practically 
entertained by the American government. "If I decide this 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 343 

case in favor of my own government," said Mr. Seward, "I 
must disavow its most cherished principles, and reverse and 
forever abandon its essential policy. If I maintain those prin- 
ciples and adhere to that policy, I must surrender the case it- 
self." He therefore declared that the persons held in military 
custody in Fort "Warren would be "cheerfully liberated." 
Mr. Seward could not forbear to say that, if the safety of the 
Union required their detention, they would have been detained; 
to draw a contrast between the action of our government and 
that of Great Britain under similar circumstances ; and to in- 
dulge in the irony that " the claim of the British government 
is not made in a discourteous manner." 

Earl Russell was satisfied with the "reparation." The pris- 
oners were released, peace between the two nations was kept, 
the war feeling subsided, disunion sympathizers all over Europe 
were disgusted with Mr. Seward's pusillanimity, and at the 
South there was no attempt to disguise the disappointment 
felt at the result. The hopes excited in the South by the dif- 
ficulty are well expressed in the language of Pollard's " His- 
tory of the First Year of the War," which says: "Providence 
was declared to oe in our favor; the incident of the Trent 
was looked upon almost as a special dispensation ; and it was 
said in fond imagination that on its deck and in the trough of 
the weltering Atlantic the key of the blockade had at last 
been lost." The same author continues: "The surrender 
was an exhibition of meanness and cowardice unparalleled in 
the political history of the civilized world." Patriots may 
well be content with a decision which brought grief to their 
enemies everywhere, and raised the whole nation in the respect 
of Christendom. 

On the second day of December, Congress met in regular 
session, and on the following day Mr. Lincoln sent in his an- 
nual message. The message opened with an allusion to the at- 
titude of foreign governments, and a statement of the fact that, 
should those governments be controlled only by material con- 
siderations, they would find that the quickest and best way 
out of the embarrassments of commerce consequent upon the 



344 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

American difficulties, would be rather through the maintenance, 
than the destruction, of the Union. It was undoubtedly with 
reference to the excitement then existing concerning the Trent 
affair that he penned the sentence : " Since, however, it is ap- 
parent that here, as in every other state, foreign dangers nec- 
essarily attend domestic difficulties, I recommend that adequate 
and ample measures be adopted for maintaining the public 
defenses on every side." 

The message announced the financial measures of the o-ov- 
ernment to have been very successful; recommended a re-or- 
ganization of the Supreme Court, the machinery of which the 
country had outgrown; suggested a codification or digest of 
the statutes of Congress, so as to reduce the six thousand pages 
upon which they were printed to the measure of a volume ; in- 
dicated his wish that the Court of Claims should have power 
to make its decisions final, with only the right of appeal on 
questions of law to the Supreme Court ; asked for increased 
attention on the part of Congress to the interests of agricul- 
ture ; expressed his gratification with the success of efforts for 
the suppression of the African slave trade ; and broached a 
plan for colonizing such slaves as had been freed by the oper- 
ation of the confiscation act, passed on the previous sixth of 
August, on territory to be acquired. The progress made 
by the federal armies, and by his own careful and moderate 
management of affairs in the border states, is shown in the 
following passage : 

"The last ray of hope for preserving the Union peaceably, expired 
at the assault upon Fort Sumter; and a general review of what has oc- 
curred since may not be unprofitable. What was painfully uncertain 
then, is much better defined and more distinct now ; and the progress 
of events is plainly in the right direction. The insurgents confidently 
claimed a strong support from north of Mason and Dixon's line; and 
the friends of the Union were not free from apprehension on the point. 
This, however, was soon settled definitely, and on the right side. South 
of the line, noble little Delaware led off right from the first. Maryland 
was made to seem against the Union. Our soldiers were assaulted, 
bridges were burned, and railroads torn up within her limits; and Ave 
were many days, at one time, without the ability to bring a single regi- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 345 

inent over her soil to the capital. Now her bridges and railroads are 
repaired and open to the Governmenl ; she already gives seven regi- 
ments to the cause of the Union, and none to the enemy; and her 
people, at a regular election, have sustained the Union by a larger ma- 
jority and a larger aggregate vote than they ever before gave to any 
candidate or any question. Kentucky, too, for some time in doubt, is 
now decidedly and, 1 think, unchangeably ranged on the side of the 
Union. Missouri is comparatively quiet, and, I believe, can not again 
be overrun by the insurrectionists. These three states of Maryland, 
Kentucky and Missouri, neither of which would promise a single soldier 
at first, have now an aggregate of not less than forty thousand in the 
field for the Union; while of their citizens, certainly not more than a 
third of that number, and they of doubtful whereabouts and doubtful 
existence, are in arms against it. After a somewhat bloody struggle 
of months, winter closes on the Union people of Western Virginia, 
leaving them masters of their own country. 

"An insurgent force of about fifteen hundred, for months dominating 
the narrow peninsular region constituting the counties of Accomac and 
Northampton, and known as the Eastern Shore of Virginia, together 
with some contiguous parts of Maryland, have laid down their arms; 
and the people there have renewed their allegiance to, and accepted the 
protection of the old flag. This leaves no armed insurrectionist north 
of the Potomac, or east of the Chesapeake. 

" Also, we have obtained a footing at each of the isolated points on 
the southern coast, of Hatteras, Port Royal, Tybee Island near Savan- 
nah, and Ship Island; and we likewise have some general accounts of 
popular movements in behalf of the Union in North Carolina and Ten- 
nessee. 

" These things demonstrate that the cause of the Union is advancing 
steadily and certainly southward." 

In the development of the insurrection, Mr. Lincoln de- 
tected a growing enmity to the first principle of popular gov- 
ernment — the rights of the people. In the grave and well 
considered public documents of the rebels he found labored 
arguments to prove that "large control of the people in gov- 
ernment is the source of all political evil. Monarchy itself}" 
he adds, "is sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the 
power of the people." Proceeding from this, Mr. Lincoln said : 

"It is not needed, nor fitting here, that a general argument should 
be made in favor of popular institutions; but there is one point, with its 
connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief 



346 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if 
not above, labor, in the structure of the government. It is assumed that 
labor is available only in connection with capital; that nobody labors 
unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces 
him to labor. Tliis assumed, it is next considered whether it is best 
that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their 
own consent, or buy them, and drive them to it without their consent. 
Having proceeded so far, it is naturally concluded that all laborers are 
either hired laborers or what we call slaves. And further, it is assumed 
that whoever is once a hired laborer, is fixed in that condition'for life. 

"Now, there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed; 
nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the con- 
dition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all in- 
ferences from them are groundless. 

" Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the 
fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first ex- 
isted. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher 
consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection 
as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always 
will be, a relation between labor and capital, producing mutual benefits. 
The error is in assuming that the whole labor of the community exists 
within that relation. A few men own capital, and those few avoid labor 
themselves, and, with their capital, hire or buy another few to labor for 
them. A large majority belong to neither class — neither work for oth- 
ers, nor have others working for them. In most of the southern states, 
a majority of the whole people of all colors are neither slaves nor mas- 
ters; while in the northern, a large majority are neither hirers nor 
hired. Men, with their families — wives, sons, and daughters — work for 
themselves, on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking 
the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on 
the one hand, nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not 
forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their own labor 
with capital— that is, they labor with their own hands, and also buy or 
hire others to labor for them; but this is only a mixed, and not a dis- 
tinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the existence of this 
mixed class. 

"Again: as has already been said, there is not of necessity any such 
thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. 
Many independent men everywhere in these states, a few years back in 
their lives, were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless beginner in 
the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy 
tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, 
and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just 
and generous and prosperous system, which opens the way to all, gives 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 347 

hope to all, and consequent energy and progress, and improvement of 
condition to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than 
those who toil up from poverty — none less inclined to take or touch 
aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of sur- 
rendering a political power which they already possess, and which, if 
surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement 
against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, 
till all of liberty shall be lost." 

Aside from the bills passed for sustaining the war, and sus- 
taining the President in his mode of and means for suppressing 
the rebellion, very little important action was taken by this 
session of Congress, that did not relate to slavery. The ques- 
tion of " arbitrary arrests," of which the enemies of the Pres- 
ident made loud complaint, came up, and Mr. Lincoln was 
sustained in the House by a vote of one hundred and eight to 
twenty-six. A provision was made for the issue of legal- 
tender notes, for increasing the internal revenue, and estab- 
lishing a basis for the payment of interest on loans, in accord- 
ance with the policy of Mr. Chase, the distinguished Secretary 
of the Treasury; and a confiscation act was passed, more 
stringent than its predecessor. 

T\e now enter upon a review of that series of measures and 
movements which culminated in the overthrow of slavery; 
and, as Mr. Lincoln has been assailed on one side for being too 
slow, and on the other for being too precipitate, these move- 
ments and measures deserve careful consideration. 

If there is one thing that stands out more prominently than 
any other in Mr. Lincoln's history, it is his regard for the 
Constitution and the laws. Especially was this the case in 
relation to that clause of the Constitution which protected 
slavery, and all the laws by which the relation of master and 
slave was preserved. This was not attributable to his love 
of slavery, for he hated it ; but it was because that on this 
point only was he suspected, and on this point only was there 
any sensitiveness in the nation. He voluntarily and frequently 
declared that he considered the slaveholders entitled to a fuoi- 
tive slave law. By the Constitution he Avas determined to 
stand ; yet there is evidence that from the first he considered 



348 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.. 

emancipation to be tho logical result of persistence in rebellion. 
As the rebellion progressed, and the rebels themselves had 
forfeited all right to constitutional protection for their peculiar 
institution, he felt himself still withheld from meddling with 
slavery by any sweeping measure, for, in the four border 
states — Maryland, DelaAvare, Kentucky and Missouri — which 
had not seceded, the government had many friends, whose 
hands he felt it his duty to strengthen by every possible means. 
lie saw the time of emancipation coming, but he wished to save 
them ; and this was the principal reason for his delay. How 
faithfully he endeavored to do this, and with how little avail, 
will appear in the narrative. Amid the attacks of bitter po- 
litical foes, and the reproaches of well-meaning but impatient 
friends, he had a difficult path to pursue. 

Following; Mr. Lincoln's lead, Mr. Seward had announced 
to foreign governments that no change in the institutions of 
the South was contemplated. General McClellan had abund- 
ant reason in the President's position for assuring the people 
of Virginia, as he did, that he contemplated nothing of the 
kind. But the people were becoming discontented with this 
mild policy, and Congress obeyed their voice by an early 
tabling of the Crittenden resolution, which had satisfied that 
body at their session in July. 

Mr. Lincoln was quick to see the tendency of the public 
mind, and began at once to shape his measures for the re- 
sult which could not long be delayed. On the sixth of March, 
he sent a message to Congress, recommending the passage of 
a joint resolution which should be substantially as follows : 

"Resolved: That the United States ought to co-operate with any 
state which may gradually adopt abolishment of slavery, giving to such 
state pecuniary aid, to be used by such state in its discretion, to com- 
pensate for inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change 
of system." 

"If the proposition contained in the resolution does not 
meet the approval of Congress and the country," added Mr. 
Lincoln, "there is an end; but if it does command such ap- 
proval, I deem it of importance that the states and peoole 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 349 

immediately interested should be at once distinctly notified of 
the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to ac- 
cent or reject it." It was Mr. Lincoln's opinion that one ot 
the severest blows the rebellion could receive would be the 
abolition of slavery in the border states. To deprive the 
rebels of the hope of securing the still loyal slave states, he 
believed would be substantially to end the rebellion. If these 
states should abolish slavery, it would in effect be saying to 
the confederacy, " We will join you under no circumstances." 
He believed that gradual was better than sudden emancipa- 
tion ; and that, as a war measure, the government would make 
the scheme of compensation a paying one. Still true to his 
old tenderness on the subject of national interference with 
slavery, he took pains to show that his plan threw the whole 
matter into the hands of the states themselves. 

There was kindly warning to his friends in the border slave 
states, in these words: 

" In the annual message of last December, I thought fit to say — ' The 
Union must be preserved ; and hence all indispensable means must be 
employed.' I said this not hastily, but deliberately. War has been 
made, and continues to be, an indispensable means to this end. A 
practical re-acknowledgment of the national authority would render the 
war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however, resistance 
continues, the war must also continue ; and it is impossible to foresee 
all the incidents which may attend, and all the ruin which may follow it. 
Such as may seem indispensable, or may obviously promise great effic- 
iency toward ending the struggle, must and will come. The proposition 
now made (though an offer only), I hope it may be esteemed no offense 
to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of 
more value to the states and private persons concerned, than are the in- 
stitutions and property in it, in the present aspect of affairs. 

'• "While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would 
be merely initiatory, and not within itself a practical measure, it is rec- 
ommended in the hope that it would soon lead to important practical 
results. In full view of my great responsibility to God and my country, 
I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject." 

It took no special degree of sagacity to learn what this 
passage meant ; but those for whom this thoughtful measure 
was intended, though the resolution went through both 



350 LIFE OF ABRAIIAM LINCOLN. 

Houses of Congress, and stood as a pledge of compensation 
for emancipation, turned their backs upon it. Only a very- 
few members from the border states voted for it. But the 
President could not let the matter stop there. He saw that 
emancipation would surely come as a war measure ; and that 
these slave states that had stood by him through much diffi- 
culty, would lose, in that event, that which the Constitution 
recognized as their property. 

Before the close of the session, he invited the senators and 
representatives from those states to a conference, at the Exe- 
cutive Mansion. It was early in July ; and, while Congress 
had been talking; and acting;, McClellan had been fio-htmo- 
with very unsatisfactory results. The nation was depressed 
by reverses ; and Mr. Lincoln wished to give these men and 
the people they represented another chance to escape from 
the loss which he felt must soon befall them. Having con- 
vened them, he read to them this carefully prepared address, 
in which he argued his own case and theirs, and appealed to 
them to save themselves and the country : 

" Gentlemen — After the adjournment of Congress, now near, I shall 
have no opportunity of seeing you for several months. Believing that 
you of the border states hold more power for good than any other 
equal number of members, I feel it a duty which I cannot justifiably 
waive, to make this appeal to you. 

"I intend no reproach or complaint when I assure you that, in my 
opinion, if you all had voted for the resolution in the gradual emanci- 
pation message of last March, the war would now be substantially 
ended. And the plan therein proposed is yet one of the most potent 
and swift means of ending it. Let the states which are in rebellion see 
definitely and certainly that in no event will the states you represent 
ever join their proposed confederacy, and they cannot much longer 
maintain the contest. But you cannot divest them of their hope to 
ultimately have you with them, as long as you show a determination to 
perpetuate the institution within your own states. Beat them at elec- 
tions, as you have overwhelmingly done, and, nothing daunted, they 
still claim you as their own. You and I know what the lever of their 
power is. Break that lever before their faces, and they can shake you 
no more forever. 

"Most of you have treated me with kindness and consideration; and 
I trust you will not now think I improperly touch what is exclusively 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 351 

your own, when, for the sake of the whole country, I ask, can you, for 
your states, do better than to take the course I urge? Discarding 
punctilio and maxims adapted to more manageable times, and looking 
only to the unprecedeiitedly stern facts of our case, can you do better in 
any possible event? You prefer that the constitutional relation of the 
states to the nation shall be practically restored without disturbance of 
the institution: and if this were done, my whole duty, in this respect, 
under the Constitution and my oath of office, would be performed. 
But it is not done, and we are trying to accomplish it by war. The in- 
cidents of the war cannot be avoided. If the war continues long, as it 
must if the object be not sooner attained, the institution in your states 
will be extinguished by mere friction and abrasion — by the mere inci- 
dents of the war. It will be gone, and you will have nothing valuable 
in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone already. How much better 
for you and for your people, to take the step which at once shortens the 
war, and secures substantial compensation for that which is sure to be 
wholly lost in any other event! How much better to thus save the 
money which else we sink forever in the Avar ! How much better to do 
it while we can, lest the war ere long render us pecuniarily unable to 
do it! How much better for you, as seller, and the nation, as buyer, to 
sell out and buy out that without which the war never could have been, 
than to sink both the thing to be sold and the price of it in cutting one 
another's throats! 

"I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision at once 
to emancipate gradually. Room in South America for colonization can 
be obtained cheaply, and in abundance ; and, when numbers shall be 
large enough to be company and encouragement for one another, the 
freed people will not be so reluctant to go. 

"I am pressed with a difficulty not yet mentioned — one which threat- 
ens division among those who, united, are none too strong. An in- 
stance of it is known to you. General Hunter is an honest man. He 
was, and I hope still is, my friend. I valued him none the less for his 
agreeing with me in the general wish that all men everywhere could be 
free. He proclaimed all men free within certain states, and I repudiated 
the proclamation. He expected more good and less harm from the 
measure than I could believe would follow. Yet, in repudiating it, I 
gave dissatisfaction, if not offense, to many whose support the country 
cannot afford to lose. And this is not the end of it. The pressure in 
this direction is still upon me, and is increasing. By conceding what I 
now ask, you can relieve me, and, much more, can relieve the country in 
this important point. 

" Upon these considerations I have again begged your attention to 
the message of March last. Before leaving the capital, consider and 
discuss it among yourselves. You are patriots and statesmen, and as 



352 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

such I pray you consider this proposition ; and at the least commend it 
to the consideration of your states and people. As you would perpetu- 
ate popular government for the best people in the world, I beseech you 
that you do in nowise omit this. Our common country is in great peril, 
demanding the loftiest views and boldest action to bring a speedy re- 
lief. Once relieved, its form of government is saved to the world ; its 
beloved history and cherished memories are vindicated ; and its happy 
future fully assured, and rendered inconceivably grand. To you, more 
than to any others, the privilege is given to assure that happiness and 
swell that grandeur, and to link your own names therewith forever." 

What Mr. Lincoln said in this paper, touching the dissatis- 
faction with which his revocation of General Hunter's order 
of emancipation had been received, was true. People were 
tired of the governmental protection of slavery in the rebel 
states ; and they had reason to be. Mr. Lincoln felt all this, 
but he could not forsake his friends, until he had tried every 
means to save them. In his revocation of General Hunter's 
order, one of the most beautiful and touching appeals that 
man ever penned, occurs — an appeal which the mistaken men 
before him had already had the opportunity of reading. In 
that paper, after quoting the resolution which Congress had 
passed pledging the country to compensation for emancipa- 
tion, he said: 

" To the people of those states I now earnestly appeal. I do not 
argue — I beseech you to make the argument for yourselves. You can- 
not, if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. I beg of you a 
calm and enlarged consideration of them, ranging, if it may be, far 
above personal and partisan politics. This proposal makes common 
cause for a common object, casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not 
the Pharisee. The changes it contemplates would come gently as the 
dews of Heaven, not rending nor wrecking anything. "Will you not em- 
brace it? So much good has not been done by one effort in all past 
time, as, in the providence of God, it is now your high privilege to do. 
May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it." 

Still forbearing, still arguing, still beseeching, Mr. Lincoln 
stood before these border-state legislators, for whose sake he 
was suffering sharp reproach in the house of his best friends ; 
but they were unmoved. They could not read the signs of 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 353 

the times. Only nine of the twenty-nine who responded gave 
words of friendliness and approval. If, since then, they have 
found themselves and their friends in distress through the de- 
struction of their property, they can have no reproaches to 
cast upon the patient man who so faithfully besought them to 
save themselves while there was an opportunity. 

Two acts were passed by this session which respectively 
called out a message from the President. The confiscation 
act, to which allusion has already been made, touched a sub- 
ject on which he had peculiar views. It would be difficult to 
express in the English language the basis of the right of 
Congress to free the slaves of rebels, in clearer and more 
unanswerable tones than Mr. Lincoln used when he Avrote: 
"It is startling to say that Congress can free a slave within a 
state, and yet, were it said that the ownership of the slave 
had first been transferred to the nation, and that Congress 
had then liberated him, the difficulty would vanish ; and this 
is the real case. The traitor against the general government 
forfeits his slave, at least as justly as he does any other prop- 
erty ; and he forfeits both to the government against which 
he offends. The government, so far as there can be ownership, 
owns the forfeited slaves; and the question for Congress, in 
regard to them, is, — Shall they be made free, or sold to new 
masters? I see no objection to Congress deciding in advance 
that they should be free." The argument of a whole volume 
would not make the subject clearer. 

The other act abolished slavery in the District of Columbia , 
and he merely pointed out an oversight in the bill, expressing 
at the same time his gratification that it recognized the two 
principles of colonization and compensation. It must have 
been with peculiar satisfaction that he thus completed a work 
which he began while he was a member of Congress himself, 
many years before. 

Late in the session, Mr. Lincoln sent to Congress the draft 

of a bill for the compensation of any state that might abolish 

slavery within its limits ; which, although it was referred to a 

committee, was not acted upon, as there appeared no disposi- 

23 



354 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tion on the part of the border states to respond to the aetion 
which Congress had already taken. 

Meantime, and especially after the enactment of the con- 
fiscation bill, presses and people maintained their clamor for a 
sweeping proclamation of emancipation. The clamor took a di- 
rect and definite form in a letter addressed by Horace Greeley, 
through the New York Tribune. The letter was severe in its 
terms, and intemperate in spirit. Any President who had oc- 
cupied the office previous to Mr. Lincoln, would have passed 
over such a letter in silence, however much it might have an- 
noyed or pained him. Mr. Lincoln, however, never thought 
of his dignity, and saw no reason why the President of the 
United States should not appear in a newspaper, as well as 
other men. He accordingly replied to Mr. Greeley, under 
date of August twenty-second, in a letter which, for concise- 
ness and lucidity, may well be regarded as a model, whether 
the position assumed in it was sound or otherwise. Mr. Lin- 
coln wrote as follows : 

"Hon. Horace Greeley, Dear Sir: I have just read yours of the 
nineteenth instant, addressed to myself through the New York Tribune. 

"If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may 
know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them. 

"If there be any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, 
I do not now and here argue against them. 

"If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I 
waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always sup- 
posed to be right. 

"As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not 
meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would 
save it in the shortest way under the Constitution. 

" The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the 
Union will be — the Union as it was. 

"If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could 
at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. 

"If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could 
at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. 

" My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or 
destroy slavery. 

" If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do 
it; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 355 

could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do 
that. 

" What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I be- 
lieve it helps to save this Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because 
I do not believe it would help to save the Tnion. 

"I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the 
cause, and I shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the 
cause. 

" I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall 
adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. 

"I have here stated my purpose according to my views of official 
duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish 
that all men everywhere could be free. 

"Yours, A. Lincoln." 

Mr. Lincoln Avas anxious to take no steps which he should 
be obliged to retrace through the lack of popular support, 
and at this time he was carefully measuring the public opinion 
on the subject of emancipation. A part of the preliminary 
work he had accomplished. He had performed with the ten- 
derest and most assiduous fidelity all his duty toward the bor- 
der slave states. He had warned them, besought them, ad- 
vised them, to get out of the way of an event which he felt 
certain would come. He knew that the institution of slavery 
would not be worth a straw, in any state, after it should be 
destroyed in the rebel states. But they turned a deaf ear to 
his warnings and entreaties ; and in this manner, if not in the 
manner desired, took themselves out of his way. 

His letter to Horace Greeley was, without doubt, intended 
to prepare the mind of the country for emancipation, and to 
exhibit the principles and exigencies by which he should be 
controlled in proclaiming it. He was clearing away obstacles, 
and preparing his ground; and, in connection with events 
which wait for record, the time for action came at last. 

Mr. Cameron was not very successful in the administration 
of the affairs of his bureau. It is no derogation to his ability 
as a statesman to say that, for the discharge of the duties of the 
war office, at the time he occupied it, he had no eminent fit- 
ness. It was not the office he would have chosen for himself. 
He had immense and almost countless contracts at his dis- 
posal, and could give to them but little personal care. That 



356 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

he was overreached, under the circumstances, was almost a 
matter of course, and many of his contracts were very bad 
ones. Congress, after his resignation, censured him for his 
loose way of doing business, in intrusting Alexander Cum- 
mings of New York with the expenditure of large sums of 
money without restriction; but Mr. Lincoln, by a special 
message, assumed all the responsibility of Mr. Cummings' 
appointment to this duty and responsibility. Mr. Cameron 
resigned his position on the 11th of January, 1862 ; and Mr. 
Lincoln showed what he thought of the charges of fraud 
against him, by appointing him minister to Russia. Never- 
theless, it was to be said of him that Mr. Chase found it difficult 
to raise money while he remained to make contracts. He re- 
signed while the House was busy with overhauling his affairs ; 
and it occurred that he sent in his resignation on the same day 
on which Mr. Dawes of Massachusetts was making a power- 
ful speech against him, and on which the special committee 
on government contracts made a report severely condemning 
his operations. 

Mr. Lincoln appointed Edwin M. Stanton of Ohio to the 
office thus vacated. Mr. Stanton was a democrat, and had 
been a member of Mr. Buchanan's cabinet — was, indeed, the 
first one in that cabinet to protest against the downright trea- 
son into which it was drifting. He was a man of indomitable 
energy, devoted loyalty and thorough honesty. Contractors 
could not manipulate him, and traitors could not deceive him. 
Impulsive, perhaps, but true ; willful, it is possible, but placa- 
ble; impatient, but persistent and efficient, — he became, at 
once, one of the most marked and important of the members of 
the cabinet. Mr. Lincoln loved him and believed in him from 
first to last. "When inquired of concerning the reasons for 
his appointment, Mr. Lincoln said he rather wished, at first, 
to appoint a man from one of the border states, but he knew 
the New England people would object; and then, again, it 
would have given him great satisfaction to appoint a man 
from New England, but that would displease the border states. 
On the whole, he thought he had better take a man from some 
intervening territory ; " and, to tell you the truth, gentlemen," 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 357 

said he, "I don't believe Stanton knows where lie belongs 
himself." The gentlemen proceeding to discuss Mr. Stanton's 
impulsiveness, Mr. Lincoln said: "Well, we may have to treat 
him as they are sometimes obliged to treat a Methodist min- 
ister I know of out west. lie gets wrought up to so high a 
pitch of excitement in his prayers and exhortations, that they 
are obliged to put bricks into his pockets to keep him down. 
>\ r e may be obliged to serve Stanton the same way, but I 
guess we '11 let him jump awhile first." 

The country has sometimes thought the time for bricks had 
come; but, on the whole, the leaders of the rebellion have 
had greatest cause of complaint. Mr. Stanton's place in his- 
tory will be a proud one. 

Malcontents, who felt that everything went wrong because 
there was something wrong in the cabinet, were much en- 
couraged by the change that had been made, and personally 
and by letter urged Mr. Lincoln to make further changes. 
A number of them called upon him to insist on changes that 
they considered absolutely necessary. Mr. Lincoln heard 
them through, and then, with his peculiar smile, said, " Gen- 
tlemen, the case reminds me of a story of an old friend of 
mine out in Illinois. His homestead was very much infested 
with those little black and white animals that we needn't call 
by name ; and, after losing his patience with them, he deter- 
mined to sally out and inflict upon them a general slaughter. 
He took gun, clubs and dogs, and at it he went, but stopped 
after killing one, and returned home. When his neighbors 
asked him why he had not fulfilled his threat of killing all 
there were on his place, he replied that his experience with 
the one he had killed was such that he thought he had better 
stop Avhere he was." 

This story was told with no disrespect to Mr. Cameron, or 
to the other members of his cabinet, for he honored them all; 
but it was told to get rid of his troublesome advisers. They 
went away forgetting that they had failed to make any im- 
pression on the President — forgetting that they had failed in 
their errand utterly — and laughing over the story by which 
the President had dismissed them. 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

A civilian, ignorant of the art of war, can only judge a 
military man by what he accomplishes in the long run by his 
policy and action; and it is difficult for such a judge to per- 
ceive what General McClellan accomplished, with his magnifi- 
cent army of a hundred and sixty thousand as good soldiers 
as ever the sun shone upon — well drilled, well fed, well clothed 
and well armed — but to scatter and wear out that army, vol- 
unteer general advice to a government that was presumed to 
be competent to the management of its own affairs, and win 
the doubtful honor of becoming the favorite of men who, 
from the first, opposed the war, and threw all possible obsta- 
cles in the way of its successful prosecution. The whole his- 
tory of McClellan's operations is a history of magnificent 
preparations and promises, of fatal hesitations and procrasti- 
nations, of clamoring for more preparations, and justifications 
of hesitations and procrastinations, of government indulgence 
and forbearance, of military intrigues within the camp, of 
popular impatience and alarms, and of the waste of great 
means and golden opportunities. Even the opportunity of 
becomino- "the hero of Antietam" came to General McClellan 
through his culpable remissness in permitting the enemy to 
cross the Potomac ; and this victory lost all its value by his 
failure to gather its fruits. 

When General McClellan assumed command, he found 
waiting for him fifty thousand men, more or less, in and 
around Washington. He assumed command during the last 
days of July ; and, within a period of less than three months, 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 359 

that army was raised to a force of more than a hundred and 
fifty thousand men, with five hundred pieces of artillery. 
The people gave him more men than any one commander was 
ever known to handle effectively in the field; and the govern- 
ment lavishly bestowed upon his army all the material of war. 
The unfortunate matter of Ball's Bluff, which occurred on the 
twenty-second of October, has already found record. This 
was the first return for the fresh means that the government 
had placed at the commanding General's disposal. The Po- 
tomac was blockaded by a small force of rebels, and both the 
President and Secretary of War felt that there was no neces- 
sity for permitting this vexatious and humiliating blockade to 
continue. They tried to induce McClellan to aid in this busi- 
ness ; and, at one time in October, he agreed to send four 
thousand men to co-operate with a naval force for this pur- 
pose; but he falsified his promise, on the ground that his 
eno-ineers told him that so large a force could not be landed. 
It did not matter that the department assumed the responsi- 
bility of landing the troops. It did not matter, even, that he 
made another promise to send the troops. They were never 
sent, the second refusal being based upon his fear of bringing 
on a general engagement, which was exactly what ought to 
have been brought on. Captain Craven of the navy, with 
whom these troops were to co-operate, threw up his command 
in disgust, and the rebels never were driven away from the 
Potomac. They kept this grand highway closed until the 
folio wino- spring, and then retired of their own accord, and at 
leisure. 

The confidence in*General McClellan on the part of the 
o-overnment and the country generally was at this time un- 
bounded ; and he could not appear among his soldiers without 
such demonstrations of enthusiastic affection as few command- 
ers have ever received. On the first of November he succeeded 
General Scott in the command of all the armies of the Union, 
still retaining personal command of the Army of the Potomac ; 
but he seemed to be unable to move. Cautious, hesitating, 
always finding fresh obstacles to a movement, he permitted 



3G0 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the o-oldcn days of autumn to pass away. In tlic meantime, 
the government was urging him to do something, as the rebel 
forces were massing in his front, and the country was clamorous 
for action. Instead of holding the commanding General re- 
sponsible for these delays, the country blamed the govern- 
ment, and manifested its dissatisfaction by its votes in the fall 
elections. 

All that autumn passed away, and not a blow was struck. 
The Potomac was closed to government war vessels and trans- 
ports, by a few batteries which the over-cautious General was 
afraid to touch. 

Mr. Lincoln was determined to break the spell which 
seemed to hold the General's mind ; and, on the twenty-seventh 
of January, he issued an order that on the twenty-second day 
of February, 1862, there should be a general movement of 
the land and naval forces of the United States, against the 
insurgent armies — especially the army at and about Fortress 
Monroe, the army of the Potomac, the army of Western Vir- 
ginia, the army near Mumfordsville, Kentucky, the army and 
flotilla at Cairo, and a naval force in the gulf of Mexico. He 
further declared " that the heads of departments, and espec- 
ially the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, with all their 
subordinates, and the General-in-Chief with all other com- 
manders and subordinates of land and naval forces, will sev- 
erally be held to their strict and full responsibilities for prompt 
execution of this order." On the thirty-first of January — 
four days afterward — he issued another order, specially to the 
army of the Potomac, to engage, on or before the twenty- 
second of February, in the attempt to s^ize upon and occupy 
a point upon the railroad south-west of Manassas Junction, 
the details of the movement to be in the hands of the Com- 
mander-in-Chief. 

To this last order of the President, General McClellan re- 
plied in a long letter to the Secretary of War. He objected 
to the President's plan, that the roads would be bad at the 
season proposed ; and wished to substitute a plan of his own, 
which had iu its favor a better soil for the moving of troops. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 3G1 

He wished to move by the Lower Rappahannock, making 
Urbana his base. He would throw upon the new line from one 
hundred and ten thousand to one hundred and forty thousand 
troops, according to circumstances, hoping to use the latter 
number, by bringing such fresh troops into Washington as 
would protect the capital. He "respectfully but firmly" ad- 
vised that he might be permitted to make this substitution of 
his own for the President's plan. So firm was he that he was 
willing to say: "I will stake my life, my reputation, on the 
result, — more than that, I will stake on it the success of our 
cause." His judgment, he declared, was against the move- 
ment on Manassas. On the third of February, Mr. Lincoln 
addressed a note to the General on this difference of opinion, 
which ought to have shown him that his superior was a com- 
petent adviser and a keen critic : 

"My dear Sir: — You and I have distinct and different plans for a 
movement of the army of the Potomac ; yours to be done by the Chesa- 
peake, up the Rappahannock, to Urbana, and across land to the termi- 
nus of the railroad on the York River; mine to move directly to a 
point on the railroad south-west of Manassas. If you will give satis- 
factory answers to the following questions, I shall gladly yield my plans 
to yours: 

"1. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of 
time and money than mine ? 

"2. Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan than mine? 

" 3. Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan than mine ? 

" 4. In fact, would it not be less valuable in this : that it would break 
no great line of the enemy's communications, while mine would ? 

"5. In case of disaster, would not a retreat be more difficult by 
your plan than mine ? " 

General McClellan replied to this through the Secretary of 
War, after his fashion ; but the President was not convinced, 
and finally agreed to submit the two plans to a council of 
twelve officers. This council, eight to four, decided in favor 
of the General's plan. The President acquiesced; but the 
rebels rendered both plans useless by withdrawing from Ma- 
nassas on the ninth of March to the other side of the Rappa- 



362 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

hannock — which date will be seen to be two weeks later 
than the date fixed for the advance of all the armies by the 
President. 

On the eighth of March, the President ordered General 
McClellan to organize that part of his army which he pro- 
posed to engage in active operations, into four Army Corps, to 
be commanded respectively by General McDowell, General 
Sumner, General Heintzelman and General Keyes; and di- 
rected the order to be executed with such dispatch as not to 
delay operations already determined on — alluding to the move- 
ment by the Chesapeake and Rappahannock. On the same 
day, he issued another order : that no change of base should 
take place without leaving in and about Washington such an 
army as should make the city secure ; that no more than two 
army corps should move before the Potomac should be cleared 
of rebel batteries; and that the movement should begin as 
early as the eighteenth of March. 

On the next day, as has already been stated, the enemy re- 
tired unsuspected and undisturbed from his defenses ; and then 
General McClellan moved forward, not to pursue, according 
to his own authority, but to give his troops some exercise, and 
a taste of the march and bivouac, before more active opera- 
tions. On the fifteenth, the army moved back to Alexandria. 

On the eleventh of March, General McClellan was relieved 
from the command of other military departments, because he 
had personally taken the field. Major-General Halleck re- 
ceived the command of the department of the Mississippi, and 
General Fremont that of the mountain department. On the 
thirteenth, a council of Avar decided that, as the enemy had 
retreated behind the Rappahannock, the new base of opera- 
tions should be Fortress Monroe, on certain conditions which 
touched the neutralization of the power of the Merrimac, (an 
iron plated rebel vessel which had already destroyed the frig- 
ates Cumberland and Congress, and been beaten back by the 
Monitor,) means of transportation, and naval auxiliaries suf- 
ficient to silence the batteries on York River. On the same 
day, Mr. Stanton wrote to General McClellan, stating that the 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 363 

President saw no objection to the plan, lut directing that such 
a force should be left at Manassas Junction as would make it 
entirely certain that the enemy should not repossess it, that 
Washington should be left secure, and that, whatever place 
might be chosen as the new base, the army should move at 
once in pursuit of the enemy, by some route. 

The President was impatient for fiction. Xot a blow had 
been struck. Back from the Potomac blockade, and back 
from Manassas, the enemy had been permitted to retire with- 
out the loss of a man or a gun. 

On the thirty-first of March, Mr. Lincoln ordered Blenker's 
division from the army of the Potomac to join General Fre- 
mont, who had importuned him for a larger force, and who 
was supported in his request by exacting friends. In a note to 
General McClellan, he said, — "I write this to assure you that 
I did so with great pain, understanding that you would wish it 
otherwise. If you could know the full pressure of the case, 
I am confident that you would justify it." General Banks, 
who had been ordered to cover "Washington by occupying 
Manassas, was ordered on the first of April to force General 
Jackson back from Winchester. 

Transportation had already been provided by the War De- 
partment for moving the troops to any new base that might 
be determined on, and General McClellan was not obliged to 
wait. On the first of April, there were under his command, 
by the official report of the Adjutant-general, 146,255 men in 
the four corps, with regular infantry and cavalry and other 
troops to raise the number to 158,419. In all the orders 
given by the President concerning the movements of this army, 
there was one condition that he insisted upon, viz, that troops 
should be left sufficient to protect Washington ; and by General 
McClellan's order only twenty thousand effective men were to 
be left with General Wadsworth, the military governor of the 
District. The force was much smaller than was necessary, 
according to General McClellan's previous calculations ; and 
General Wadsworth was so much impressed with its inade- 
quacy that he called the attention of the war department to 



364 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the subject. The letter was referred to Adjutant-o-eneral 
Thomas and General E. A. Hitchcock, whose decision was 
embodied in the words: "In view of the opinion expressed by 
the council of the commanders of army corps, of the force 
necessary for the capital, though not numerically stated, and 
of the force represented by General McClellan as left for 
that purpose, we are of opinion that the requirement of the 
President that this city shall be left entirely secure, not only 
in the opinion of the General-in-chief, but that of the com- 
manders of all the army corps also, has not been fully complied 
with." In the meantime, General McClellan had gone for- 
ward to Fortress Monroe, and all but two corps of the troops 
had left for the new base. When, therefore, Generals Thomas 
and Hitchcock made their report, and the President saw that 
Washington was about to be left without sufficient defense, 
he directed the Secretary of War to order that one of the two 
corps not then embarked should remain in front of Washing- 
ton, and that the other corps should go forward as speedily as 
possible. This was under date of April third. The first 
corps, under General McDowell, was designated for this pro- 
tective service, numbering 38,454: men. Two new military 
departments were at once erected — the Department of the 
Rappahannock, under General McDowell, and the Depart- 
ment of the Shenandoah, lying between the mountain depart- 
ment and the Blue Ridge, under General Banks. 

General McClellan pushed a portion of his troops toward 
Yorktown at once — toward a line of intrenchments held by 
the enemy, stretching across the Peninsula. On the fifth of 
April he wrote to the President, dating his letter " Near York- 
town," and stating that the enemy were in large force in his 
front, and that they apparently intended to make a determined 
resistance. At that time, the rebel force at that point, accord- 
ing to subsequent reports by the rebels themselves, did not 
exceed ten thousand men. No one doubts now that General 
McClellan's cautiousness betrayed his judgment, and that a 
strong and well-directed attack would have swept the rebels 
out of their works. 



LIFE OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 3G5 

In this letter, he began his long-continued complaint of in- 
adequate force. He begged the President to reconsider his 
order detaching the first corps from his command, as it was 
his opinion that he should have to fight all the available force 
of the rebels, not far from the place where he was writing. 
If he could not have the whole corps, he begged for Franklin 
and his division. On the sixth, Air. Stanton replied that Sum- 
ner's troops were on the way to him, that Franklin's division 
was on the advance to Manassas, and that there were no means 
of transportation to send it forward in time for service in his 
operations. "All in the power of the government," added 
the Secretary, " shall be done to sustain you, as occasion may 
require." 

Another day passed away; and, on the date of Mr. Stan- 
ton's dispatch, General McClellan wrote again, begging for 
Franklin's division, complaining that he had no sufficient 
transportation, and stating that the order forming new depart- 
ments deprived him of the power of ordering up wagons and 
troops, absolutely necessary for his advance on Richmond. 
He requested that the material he had prepared and necessarily 
left behind, with wagon trains, ammunition, and Woodbury's 
brigade, might be subject to his order. Mr. Lincoln immedi- 
ately telegraphed him that his order for forwarding what he 
had demanded, including Woodbury's brigade, was not, and 
would not be interfered with, informing him at the same time 
that he had then more than one hundred thousand troops with 
him, independent of those under General Wool's command. 
Mr. Lincoln closed his dispatch with the words: "I think 
you had better break the enemy's line from Yorktown to 
Warwick River at once. They will probably use time as ad- 
vantageously as you can." 

Mr. Lincoln, like the whole country, was convinced that 
there was no such force behind those works as the fears of the 
General had counted there ; and it is now humiliatin<T to learn 
from the official report of the rebel commander Magruder, 
that, " with five thousand men, exclusive of the garrisons, we 
(they) stopped and held in check over one hundred thousand 



366 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of the enemy." At Gloucester, Yorktown and Mulberry Is- 
land, he was obliged to put garrisons amounting to six thou- 
sand men, and he had only five thousand men left to defend 
a line of thirteen miles. With a hundred thousand men at 
his back, General McClellan went to work with shovels to 
begin a regular siege. On the ninth of April, Mr. Lincoln 
wrote him a letter which is so full of wise counsel, kind criti- 
cism, and personal good-will, that it deserves record here : 

" My Dear Sir — Your dispatches, complaining that you are not prop- 
erly sustained, -while they do not offend me, do pain me very much. 

" Blenker's division was withdrawn from you before you left here ; and 
you know the pressure under which I did it, and, as I thought, acqui- 
esced in it — certainly not without reluctance. 

" After you left, I ascertained that less than twenty thousand unor- 
ganized men, without a single field battery, were all you designed to be 
left for the defence of Washington and Manassas Junction ; and part of 
this even was to go to General Hooker's old position. General Banks' 
corps, once designed for Manassas Junction, was diverted and tied up 
on the line of Winchester and Strasburg, and could not leave it without 
again exposing the upper Potomac and the Baltimore and Ohio Kail- 
road. This presented, or would present, when McDowell and Sumner 
should be gone, a great temptation to the enemy to turn back from the 
Rappahannock and sack Washington. My implicit order that Washing- 
ton should, by the judgment of all the commanders of army corps, be 
left entirely secure, had been neglected. It was precisely this that 
drove me to detain McDowell. 

" I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrangement to leave 
Banks at Manassas Junction : but, when that arrangement was broken 
up, and nothing was substituted for it, of course I was constrained to 
substitute something for it myself. And allow me to ask, do you really 
think I should permit the line from Richmond, via Manassas Junction, 
to this city, to be entirely open, except what resistance could be pre- 
sented by less than twenty thousand unorganized troops? This is a 
question which the country will not allow me to evade. 

" There is a curious mystery about the number of troops now with 
you. When I telegraphed you on the sixth, saying you had over a 
hundred thousand with you, I had just obtained from the Secretary of 
War a statement taken, as he said, from your own returns, making one 
hundred and eight thousand then with you and en route to you. J-OU 
now say you will have but eighty-five thousand when all en route to you 
shall have reached you. How can the discrepancy of twenty-three 
thousand be accounted for? 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 367 

"As to General Wool's command, I understand it. is doing for you 
precisely what a like number of your own would have to do if that 
command Avas away. 

"I suppose the whole force which lias gone forward for you is with 
you by this time. And, if so, I think it is the precise time for you to 
strike a blow. By delay, the enemy will relatively gain upon you — 
that is, he will gain faster by fortifications and reinforcements than you 
can by reinforcements alone. And once more let me tell you, it is in- 
dispensable to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help this. 
You will do me the justice to remember I always insisted that going 
down the bay in search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Ma- 
nassas, was only shifting, and not surmounting, a difficulty; that we 
would find the same enemy, and the same or equal intrenchments, at 
either place. The country will not fail to note — is now noting — that 
the present hesitation to move upon an intrenched enemy is but the 
story of Manassas repeated. 

" I beg to assure you that I have never written to you or spoken to 
you in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose 
to sustain you, so far as, in my most anxious judgment, I consistently 
can. But you must act. 

Yours, very truly, A. Lincoln. 

The President yielded to McClellan, and sent General 
Franklin to him, with his division; and General McClellan 
thanked him for his kindness and consideration, adding, "1 
now understand the matter which I did not before." Cer- 
tainly his misunderstanding of the matter had not been the 
result of any lack of effort on the part of the President to 
make him understand it. Through the whole month in which 
the great army lay before Yorktown, the President and War 
Department were fed with dispatches of the most encouragino- 
character. General McClellan was leaving nothing undone 
to enable him to attack without delay ; after receivino- rein- 
forcements, he was "confident of results;" he was soon to be 
"at them;" there was to be "not a moment's unnecessary 
delay;" he Avas "getting up the heavy guns, mortars and 
ammunition quite rapidly;" there Avere heavy rains, and hor- 
rid roads, but he Avas "making progress all the time." He 
was making progress in the concentration of troops, certainly, 
for, on the thirtieth of April, he had, by Adjutant-general 



3G8 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Townsend's report, 130,378 men, of whom 112,392 were reck- 
oned effective. At this time, he called upon the department 
for Parrott guns; and, on the first of May, the President 
wrote him: "Your call for Parrott guns from Washington 
alarms me — chiefly because it argues indefinite procrastina- 
tion. Is anything to he done ? " 

There was something to be done, but the enemy did it. 
After the absolute waste of a month's time, opportunities, and 
resources of strength and material, the rebels quietly evacu- 
ated their position, and retired up the Peninsula. It Avas the 
old story of great preparations to fight, and no fighting — no 
weakening of the enemy. General McClcllan thought the 
success brilliant, if we may judge by his dispatches. It was 
the costly victory of an engineer. He telegraphed to Mr. 
Stanton, on the fourth, that he held the entire line of the en- 
emy's works ; that he had thrown all his cavalry and horse 
artillery, supported by infantry, in pursuit ; that no time should 
be lost, and that he should "push the enemy to the wall." 
The enemy retired to his second line of works at AVilliams- 
burgh without pushing, and took his position behind the wall. 
Here was fought the battle of Williamsburgh, which McClcl- 
lan designated in his final report as " one of the most brilliant 
eno-ao-ements of the war." He bestows the highest praise 
upon General Hancock, though Hooker had fought with equal 
gallantry, and encountered greater losses. All did their duty ; 
and when, between four and five o'clock in the afternoon, 
General McClcllan arrived upon the ground (the battle hav- 
ing commenced early in the morning,) he did his duty, and 
helped materially toward a favorable result of the action. 
On the next morning, there was no enemy ; and, owing to the 
bad roads, the lack of food, and the exhaustion of the troops, 
there could be no immediate pursuit. 

On the seventh of May, General Franklin landed at West 
Point with his division, further up the peninsula, supported 
by the divisions of Sedgwick, Porter and Richardson. The 
rebels were obliged to attack, to give the retreating columns 
from Williamsburgh time and opportunity to pass ; but, after 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 369 

a battle of six hours they were repulsed, though not until they 
had accomplished their object. 

General MeClellan did not like the organization of the 
army into corps. TI13 measure did not originate with him, 
and the men appointed to their command were not men of his 
choosing. He did not believe in fighting the battle of Wil- 
liamsburgh. The three corps-commanders, Sumner, Ileintzcl- 
man and Keyes, were all on the ground; and were regarded 
by the commanding General as indiscreet in commencing the 
attack, and incompetent in its conduct. 

At this time, Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Stanton and Mr. Chase 
were all on a visit to Fortress Monroe ; and, on the ninth of 
May, General MeClellan took occasion to Avrite to the Secre- 
tary of War, asking permission to re-organize the army corps. 
He wished to return to the organization by divisions, or to be 
authorized to relieve incompetent commanders of army corps. 
To give force to his request, he declared in his note that, had 
he been half an hour later on the field, the army would have 
been routed, and would have lost everything. He declared 
that he found on the field " the utmost confusion and incompe- 
tency," and added that "at least a thousand lives were really 
sacrificed by the organization into corps." Mr. Stanton re- 
plied that the President, who would write him privately, 
would give him liberty to suspend the corps organization 
temporarily, or until further orders. Mr. Lincoln wrote pri- 
vately, and wrote a very frank and honest letter, dated at Fort- 
ress Monroe, of which these were the essential paragraphs: 

"I have just assisted the Secretary of War in forming the part of a 
dispatch to you, relating to army corps, which dispatch, of course, will 
have reached you long before this will. I wish to say a few words to 
you privately on this subject. I ordered the army corps organization 
not only on the unanimous opinion of the twelve Generals of division, 
but also on the unanimous opinion of every military man I could get an 
opinion from, and every modern military book, yourself only excepted. 
Of course I did not on my own judgment pretend to understand the 
subject. I now think it indispensable for you to know how your struggle 
against it is received in quarters which we cannot entirely disregard. 
It is looked upon as merely an effort to pamper one or two pets, and to 
24 



370 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



persecute and degrade their supposed rivals. I have had no word from 
Stunner, Heintzehnan and Keyes. The commanders of these corps are 
of course the three highest officers with you, but I am constantly told 
that you have no consultation or communication with them, that you 
consult and communicate with nobody but Fitz John Porter, and per- 
haps General Franklin. I do not say these complaints are true or just; 
but, at all events, it is proper you should know of their existence. Do 
the commanders of corps disobey your orders in anything? 

" Are you strong enough, even with my help, to set your foot upon 
the neck of Sumner, Heintzehnan and Keyes, all at once ? This is a 
practical and very serious question to you." 

After the receipt of this private letter, General McClellan 
concluded not to make the change which seemed so essential ; 
but he created two new corps, or "provisional corps," which 
he placed respectively under the command of Fitz John Porter 
and General Franklin, the men whom Mr. Lincoln had men- 
tioned as his favorites. 

Leaving the army to make its way toward Richmond, events 
take us back to Fortress Monroe for a brief space, where the 
"Washington dignitaries were consulting and watching the 
progress of affairs. Nothing could be done on the James 
River, on account of the presence of the formidable Merrimac ; 
and, in the meantime, Norfolk was held by the rebels. It was 
desirable to take Norfolk ; and an expedition was fitted out at 
Fortress Monroe, under command of General Wool, for that 
purpose. To show how this was done, and, at the same time, 
to illustrate the free and easy maimer in which the President 
dealt with his officers, we shall let Mr. Lincoln tell his own " lit- 
tle story." In a subsequent conversation with Major General 
Garfield, he said: "By the way, Garfield, do you know that 
Chase, Stanton, General Wool and I had a campaign of our 
own? We went down to Fortress Monroe in Chase's revenue 
cutter, and consulted with Admiral Goldsborough on the feas- 
ibility of taking Norfolk by landing on the North shore and 
making a march of eight miles. The Admiral said there was 
no landing on that shore, and we should have to double the 
cape, and approach the place from the south side, which would 
be a long journey, and a difficult one. I asked him if he had 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 371 

ever tried to find a landing, and he replied that he had not. 
I then told him a story of a fellow in Illinois who had studied 
law, but had never tried a case. lie was sued, and, not hav- 
ing confidence in his ability to manage his own case, employed 
a lawyer to manage it for him. He had only a confused idea 
of the meaning of law terms, hut was anxious to make a dis- 
play of learning, and, on the trial, constantly made suggestions 
to his lawyer, who paid but little attention to him. At last, 
fearing that his lawyer was not handling the opposing coun- 
sel very well, he lost all his patience ; and, springing to his 
feet, cried out, ' Why don't you go at him with a capias or a 
surre-butter or something, and not stand there like a con- 
founded old nudum-pactum?' 'Now, Admiral,' said I, 'if 
you don't know that there is no landing on the North shore, 
I want you to find out. ' " 

Continuing his narrative, Mr. Lincoln said : " The Admiral 
took the hint ; and, taking Chase and Wool along, with a com- 
pany or two of marines, he went on a voyage of discovery, 
and Stanton and I remained at Fortress Monroe. That night 
we went to bed, but not to sleep, for we were very anxious 
for the fate of the expedition. About two o'clock the next 
morning, I heard the heavy tread of Wool ascending the 
stairs. I went out into the parlor and found Stanton hugging 
Wool in the most enthusiastic manner, as he announced that 
he had found a landing, and had captured Norfolk." 

Thus Norfolk came into our possession on the ninth of May; 
and on the eleventh the Merrimac was blown up by command 
of her own officers, releasing our navy from its long durance, 
though its passage up the James was repulsed by a heavy 
battery at Drury's Bluff. 

General McClellan was still busy with his dispatches. Of 
the nature of these dispatches, we can judge by the replies of 
the President. Under date of May fifteenth, the latter writes : 
"I have done all I could, and can, to sustain you. I hoped 
that the opening of James Elver, and putting Wool and Burn- 
side in communication with an open road to Richmond, or to 
you, had effected something in that direction." For five days 



372 LIFE OF 'ABRAHAM .LINCOLN? 

our army lay at Williamsburgh, on account of bad roads, 
which roads the rebel army found it convenient to pass with 
sufficient rapidity to place themselves within the outer defenses 
of Richmond, a distance of nearly forty miles. & They were, 
at least, all across the Chickahommy River. 

Head-quarters reached White House on the sixteenth. 
Two days previously, the General had written the President 
that he could bring only eighty thousand men into the field, 
and that he wanted every man the government could send 
him. Mr. Stanton wrote him on the eighteenth that the 
President was unwilling to uncover the capital entirely, but 
desired that he would extend his right wing to the north of 
Richmond, so that McDowell could communicate with him 
by his left wing. "At your earnest call for reinforcements," 
said Mr Stanton, "he is sent forward to co-operate in the re- 
duction of Richmond, but charged, in attempting this, not to 
uncover the city of Washington." General McClellan seemed 
to have no idea that the capital was in danger, and replied to 
this that he wished McDowell to join him by water. He 
feared that he could not join him overland in season for the 
coming battle, and complained that McDowell was not put 
more directly under his command. On the twenty-fourth of 
May, the President wrote, saying that McDowell and Shields 
would move for him on the following Monday, Shields' troops 
beino- too much worn to march earlier; and that they had so 
weakened their line already that Banks, in the Shenandoah 
valley, was in peril, and had met with a serious loss. On the 
same day, Mr. Lincoln was obliged, in order to save the 
capital, to suspend McDowell's movement toward McClellan ; 
for the rebel General Jackson had begun a desperate push for 
Harper's- Ferry. Against this action of the President, Mc- 
Clellan protested; and, on the twenty-fifth, the former wrote 
him a note, giving a full statement of the situation: 

• "Your dispatch received. General Banks was at Strasburg with 
about six thousand men, Shields having been taken from him to swell 
a column for McDowell to aid you at Richmond, and the rest of his 
force scattered at various places. On the twenty-third, a force of seven 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 373 

thousand to ten thousand fell upon one regiment and two companies 
guarding the bridge at Fronl Royal, destroying it entirely; crossed the 
Shenandoah, and on the twenty-fourth, yesterday, pushed on to get 
north of Banks on the road to Winchester General Banks ran a race 
with them, beating them into Winchester yesterday evening This 
morning a battle ensued between the two forces, in which General 
Banks was beaten back into full ret reat toward Martinsburg, and prob- 
ably is broken up into a total rout. Geary, on the Manassas Gap 
Railroad, just now reports that Jackson is now near Front Royal with 
ten thousand troops, following up and supporting, as I understand, the 
force now pursuing Banks. Also, that another force of ten thousand 
is near Orleans, following on in the same direction. Stripped bare, as 
we are here, I will do all we can to prevent them crossing the Potomac 
at Harper's Ferry or above. McDowell has about twenty thousand of 
his forces moving back to the vicinity of Front Royal; and Fremont, who 
was at Franklin, is moving to Harrisonburg- both these movements in- 
tended to get in the enemy's rear. 

" One more of McDowell's brigades is ordered through here to Har- 
per's Ferry; the rest of his forces remain for the present at Fredericks- 
burg. We are sending such regiments and dribs from here and Balti- 
more as we can spare to Harper's Ferry, supplying their places in some 
sort, calling in militia from the adjacent states. We also have eighteen 
cannon on the road to Harper's Ferry, of which arm there is not one 
at that point. This is now our situation. 

"If McDowell's force icas now beyond our reach, ice should be entirely 
helpless. Apprehension of something like this, and no unwillingness to sus- 
tain you, has always been my reason for loithholding McDowell's forces from 
you. 

"Please understand this, and do the best you can with the forces you 
have." 

A few hours after this dispatch was sent, the President sent 
another, stating that the enemy was driving General Banks 
before him, and was threatening Leesburgh and Geary on the 
Manassas Gap Railroad ; that the movement looked like a gen- 
eral and concerted one — such an one as he would not make 
if he were acting on the purpose of a very desperate defense 
of Richmond; and that, if McClellan did not at once attack 
that capital, he would probably have to give up the job, and 
come to the defense of Washington. 

This dispatch moved the General. General Fitz John 
Porter was sent to attack a rebel force near Hanover Court- 



374 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

House, which he did with favorable results. General Mc- 
Clellan described it as a perfect rout of the enemy, at which 
the President wrote a dispatch, stating his gratification, but 
expressing his surprise that the Richmond and Fredericksburg 
Railroad was not seized again. On the twenty-sixth, Mr. 
Lincoln informed General McClellan that Banks was safe at 
Williamsport. Still the General wanted troops sent to him 
by water, still he wanted more troops, and still the President 
assured him, again and again, that he was doing and would 
do for him everything he could do, consistently with the 
safety of Washington. 

A movement was commenced on the twenty-fifth to cross 
the Chickahominy ; and, on the thirtieth and thirty-first, a 
battle was fought, which resulted in such a repulse of the 
rebels, and such heavy losses to them as greatly to alarm Rich- 
mond, and impress upon the city the belief that an immediate 
and fatal pursuit would be made by the federal forces. After 
the engagement, General McClellan crossed the river, but 
found the roads so bad that artillery could not be handled, and 
that pursuit was impossible ; although the rebels had found it 
convenient to get back, and expected to be pursued. The 
following day, General Heintzelman sent a reconnoitering 
party within four miles of Richmond, without finding an ene- 
my. Informed of this, General McClellan ordered the force 
to fall back to its old position : and on the same day wrote to 
Washington that he only waited for the river to fall, to cross 
over the rest of his army, and make a general attack ; and 
that the morale of his army was such that he could venture 
much, not fearing the odds against him. 

McClellan had met great losses by battle and disease ; and 
the government did what it could for him, by placing under 
his command the troops at Fortress Monroe, and by sending 
to him McCall's division of McDowell's corps. On the 
seventh of June, the General wrote to the Secretary of War 
that he should be ready to move as soon as McCall should 
reach him, and McCall reached him on the tenth. On that 
day, he had caught a rumor that Beauregard had reinforced 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 375 

the rebels in Richmond ; and then he wanted some of Ilallcck's 
army in Tennessee sent to him. The Secretary assured him 
that Beauregard and his army were not in Richmond, but that 
Halleck would be urged to comply with the request, so far as 
he could do so with safety. The particular friends of Mc- 
Clellan were busy at this time with suspicions and reports 
that the President and Secretary of War were trying to sac- 
rifice him ; and, to put an extinguisher on this, Mr. Stanton 
wrote: "Be assured, General, that there never has been a 
moment when my desire has been otherwise than to aid you 
with my whole heart, mind and strength, since the hour we 
first met; and, whatever others may say, for their own pur- 
poses, you have never had, and never can have, any one more 
truly your friend, or more anxious to support you, or more 
joyful than I shall be at the success which I have no doubt 
will soon be achieved by your arms." 

With a long series of dispatches in which General McClel- 
lan quarrels with the relations which General McDowell's 
troops held to his command, it is not necessary to burden 
these pages. The President wished to hold on to McDowell's 
troops, and still have them assist McClellan. He had sent 
McCall's division by water ; but these were directed to be 
posted so that they could unite with the corps coming by 
land, and to be kept under McDowell. McClellan saw in 
this arrangement only ambition on the part of McDowell ; and, 
in one of his dispatches, wrote the government: "If I cannot 
fully control all his troops, I want none of them, but would 
prefer to fight the battle with what I have, and let others be 
responsible for the results," which was equivalent to saying 
that he would rather be whipped without McDowell's troops, 
under the circumstances, than be victorious with them. 

On the twenty-first, the General sent a dispatch to the Pres- 
ident, saying that ten thousand men had been sent from Rich- 
mond to reinforce Jackson. Mr. Lincoln informed him of the 
confirmation of the news, and told him that it was as good to 
him as a reinforcement of an equal number. 

Thus the time passed away, while his army was wasting § 



376 LIFE OF ABEAHAM LIXCOLX. 

with disease in the Chickahominy swamps, and he, with every 
fresh dispatch, was just " about to move." He had lain there a 
month ; and the rebels thought it was time for him to move in 
the other direction. He saw the preparations, and, anticipa- 
ting a defeat, he wrote to inform the government that the rebel 
force before him was two hundred thousand strong, and that, 
in case of a disaster, the responsibility could not be thrown 
on his shoulders. This kind of talk troubled Mr. Lincoln. 
"I give you all I can," said he, "and act on the presumption 
that you will do the best you can with what you have ; while 
you continue, ungenerously, I think, to assume that I could 
give you more if I would." At this very moment, as it ap- 
pears by McClellan's report, he had ordered supplies to a 
point on the James Eiver, to which he expected to retreat. 
On the afternoon of the twenty-sixth, the extreme right of 
the army was attacked ; and, from that time until the army had 
wheeled back to the James Eiver, there was no rest. They 
fell back, fighting every day, inflicting terrible losses on the 
enemy, and receiving sad punishment themselves. The Gen- 
eral's pen was busy still, as it might be, for he took no part 
in the engagements. If he had ten thousand fresh troops, he 
could take Richmond, he thought ; but, as it was, he could only 
cover his retreat. He was not responsible for the result ; he 
must have more troops. "If I save this army now," said he 
to the Secretary of War, " I tell you plainly that I owe no 
thanks to you, or to any persons in Washington ; you have 
done your best to sacrifice this army." Was ever such petu- 
lance, such insolence, borne with such patience before ? The 
President wrote him: "Save your army at all events." The 
President would not blame him. "We protected Washing- 
ton," said he, " and the enemy concentrated on you. Had we 
stripped Washington, he would have been upon us before the 
troops sent could have got to you. Less than a week ago, 
you notified us that reinforcements were leaving Eichmond to 
come in front of us. It is the nature of the case, and neither 
you nor the government is to blame." General McClellan 
called upon the President for a reinforcement of fifty thousand 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 877 

troops, to which Mr. Lincoln replied: "When you ask for 
fifty thousand men to be promptly sent to you, you surely la- 
bor under some gross mistake of fact. Kecently, you sent 
papers showing your disposal of forces made last spring, for 
the- defense of Washington, and advising a return to that 
plan. I find it included, in and about Washington, seventy- 
five thousand men. Now, please be assured that I have not 
men enough to fill that very plan by fifteen thousand.'' Fur- 
ther on he says: "I have not, outside of your army, seventy- 
five thousand men east of the mountains. Thus the idea of 
sending you fifty thousand men, or any other considerable 
forces promptly, is simply absurd." He closed by assuring 
him that he did not blame him for his disasters, asMno- 
that he would be equally generous toward the government, 
and adjuring him to save his army. It was absolutely impos- 
sible for the government to send reinforcements at once, to 
enable McClellan to assume the offensive. On the seventh of 
July, the General, who seems to have had a penchant for 
giving general advice to the government, found time to write 
a long letter to Mr. Lincoln, telling him that he thought the 
war should not look to the " subjugation of the people of any 
state, in any event." He would have no political execution 
of persons, no confiscation, and no forcible abolition of slav- 
ery ; though it appears that he did not object to the practi- 
cal abolition of slavery upon military necessity, and by mili- 
tary means. "A declaration of radical views, especially upon 
slavery, will rapidly disintegrate our present armies," said the 
General : but he did not seem to produce a profound impres- 
sion upon the mind of the Executive. 

The President determined to ascertain, by personal inspec- 
tion, the condition of the army; and, on the eighth, visited 
General McClellan at Harrison's Landing. At this time it 
was understood that the enemy was organizing his forces for 
an advance on Washington. It was the opinion of Mr. Lin- 
coln, and of the corps commanders, that the army should re- 
pair to Washington, but General McClellan was against it. 
The army, he declared, ought not to be withdrawn. It ouo-ht 



378 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

to be promptly reinforced, and thrown again upon Eiclimond. 
lie wanted the whole of General Burnside's command in 
North Carolina to help him. He dreaded the eifects of a re- 
treat upon the morale of his army, although he had just tried 
it, and declared, in a dispatch of the eleventh, that the army 
was in "fine spirits." 

On the thirteenth, the President wrote him that one hund- 
red and sixty thousand men had gone with his army to the 
Peninsula, and that, when he was with him, a few days be- 
fore, he was informed that only eighty-six thousand remained, 
leaving seventy-three thousand five hundred to be accounted 
for. After making all allowances for deaths, wounds and 
sickness, fifty thousand men were still absent. General Mc- 
Clellan replied that 38,250 men were absent by authority. 
Here was a reinforcement at command worth having. "Why 
did the General let them go? "Why did he not call them 
back? 

It was determined at last to withdraw the army from the 
Peninsula, and the order found McClellan still protesting. 
"The true defense of Washington" was just where he was. 
He received the order to remove his sick on the second of 
August ; but it was not until the twenty-third that General 
Franklin's corps started from Fortress Monroe, and not until 
the twenty-sixth that McClellan himself arrived at Alexan- 
dria. On the following day, he was ordered to take the en- 
tire direction of the forwarding of the troops from Alexandria 
to assist General Pope, who, two months before, had taken the 
consolidated commands of McDowell and Fremont, the latter 
retiring at his own request, and being replaced by Sigel. 
That portion of the army of the Potomac which arrived be- 
fore McClellan, pushed off at once to reinforce Pope ; but not 
a man that came afterwards took any part in those battles by 
which that General was driven back upon Washington. The 
dispatches by which he was urged, ordered, almost besought, 
to forward troops to the assistance of Pope, would fill several 
pages of this volume ; and, when we know how promptly froops 
went forward before his arrival, it is impossible to find in his 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 379 

miserable excuses for inaction anything but a disposition to 
embarrass Pope, and deprive him of success. It is a hard judg- 
ment, and a sad one to render; but it must be rendered, or 
the conclusion is inevitable that the General was cither in- 
competent to comprehend the emergency or afraid to meet it. 
It is impossible to find an apology for his failure to act in this 
great necessity, that would not damage his reputation as a 
military man. 

The triumphant rebels moved up the Potomac with the ev- 
ident intention of crossing and invading Maryland. No time 
was to be lost. Under the representation that the army of 
the Potomac would serve under no commander but Mc- 
Clellan, General Pope was relieved, and the former placed in 
command of all the troops. On the fourth of September, he 
commenced moving into Maryland for the purpose of expelling 
the rebel forces. Washington was in a panic, and the whole 
country was in a condition of the most feverish excitement. 
Still he called for reinforcements. He wanted to uncover 
Washington again, and said that, "even if Washington should 
be taken," it "would not bear comparison with the ruin and 
disaster that would follow a single defeat of this army." 
When that same army was fighting under Pope, it did not, 
apparently, impress him in that way at all. 

The battle of South Mountain was fought on the fourteenth, 
and, on the seventeenth, the battle of Antietam. The rebels 
were whipped, and recrossed the Potomac, broken and dis- 
heartened. General McClellan did not pursue, owing to the 
condition of his army, one whole corps of which (Fitz John 
Porter's) had not been in the action at all; and, as if the habit 
of calling for reinforcements had become chronic, renewed his 
application for more troops. There he remained, with no 
effort to follow up his victory. The President was impatient, 
but, to be sure that he did no injustice to the General, he vis- 
ited the army in person, to ascertain what its real condition 
was. The result was an order, issued on the sixth, for the 
army to move across the Potomac, and give battle to the en- 
emy, or drive him south. The President promised him thirty 



380 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

thousand new men, if he would move across the river between 
the enemy and Washington. If he would prefer to move up 
the Shenandoah valley, he could only spare him fifteeen thou- 
sand. Then General McClellan began to make inquiries, and 
call for shoes and other supplies ; but he did not begin to move. 
A few days afterward, the rebel General Stuart made a raid 
into Pennsylvania, with a large cavalry force, keeping General 
McClellan busy, and calling forth from him the confident state- 
ment that the daring raiders would be bagged ; but they went 
completely around the army, and escaped in safety. A note 
written to the General by Mr. Lincoln, on the thirteenth, so well 
illustrates the situation at the moment, and, at the same time, 
betrays so fully his knowledge of affairs and the intelligence of 
his military criticisms, that it must be given entire : 

"My Dear Sir — You remember my speaking to you of what I called 
your over-cautiousness. Are you not over-cautious when you assume 
that you can not do what the enemy is constantly doing? Should you 
foot claim to be at least his equal in prowess, and act upon the claim? 

"As I understand, you telegraphed General Halleck that you can not 
subsist your army at Winchester, unless the railroad from Harper's 
Ferry to that point be put in working order. But the enemy does now 
subsist his army at Winchester, at a distance nearly twice as great from 
railroad transportation as you would have to do, without the railroad 
last named. He now wagons from Culpepper Court-House, which is 
just about twice as far as you would have to do from Harper's Ferry. He 
is certainly not more than half as well provided with wagons as you 
are. I certainly should be pleased for you to have the advantage of 
the railroad from Harper's Ferry to Winchester; but it wastes all the 
remainder of autumn to give it to you, and, in fact, ignores the question 
of time, which can not and must not be ignored. 

" Again, one of the standard maxims of war, as you know, is, " to 
operate upon the enemy's communications as much as possible without 
exposing your own." You seem to act as if this applies against you, 
but can not apply in your/«ror. Change positions with the enemy; and 
think you not he would break your communication with Richmond 
within the next twenty-four hours? You dread his going into Pennsyl- 
vania. But, if he does so in full force, he gives up his communications 
to you absolutely, and you have nothing to do but to follow and ruin 
him; if he does so with less than full force, fall upon and beat what is 
left behind all the easier. 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 381 

" Exclusive of the water line, you are now nearer Richmond than the 
enemy is by the route that you can and he must take. Why can you 
not reach there before him, unless you admit that he is more than your 
equal on a march? His route is the arc of a circle, while yours is the 
chord. The roads are as good on yours as on his. 

''You know I desired. 1 ml did not order you, to cross the Potomac 
below, instead of above, the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge. My idea was, 
that this would at once menace the enemy's communications, which I 
would seize if he would permit. If he should move northward, I would 
follow him closely, holding his communications. If he should prevent 
our seizing his communications, and move toward Richmond, I would 
press closely to him, fight him if a favorable opportunity should pre- 
sent, and at least try to beat him to Richmond on the inside track. I 
say 'try;' if we never try, we shall never succeed. If he make a stand 
at Winchester, moving neither north nor south, I would fight him there, 
on the idea that, if we cannot beat him when he bears the wastage of 
coming to us, we never can when we bear the wastage of going to him. 
This proposition is a simple truth, and is too important to be lost sight 
of for a moment. In coming to us, he tenders us an advantage which 
we should not waive. We should not so operate as to merely drive 
him away. As we must beat him somewhere, or fail finally, we can do 
it, if at all, easier near to us than far away. If we cannot beat the 
enemy where he now is, we never can, he again being within the in- 
trenchments of Richmond. Recurring to the idea of going to Rich- 
mond on the inside track, the facility of supplying from the side away 
from the enemy is remarkable ; as it were, by the different spokes of a 
wheel, extending from the hub toward the rim; — and this whether you 
move directly by the chord, or on the inside arc, hugging the Blue 
Ridge more closely. The chord-line, as you see, carries you by Aldie, 
Haymarket, and Fredericksburg , and you see how turnpikes, railroads, 
and finally the Potomac by Acquia Creek, meet you at all points from 
Washington. The same, only the hues lengthened a little, if you press 
closer to the Blue Ridge part of the way. The gaps through the Blue 
Ridge I understand to be about the following distances from Harper's 
Ferry, to wit: Vestal's, five miles; Gregory's, thirteen; Snicker's, 
eighteen; Ashby's, twenty-eight; Manassas, thirty-eight; Chester, 
forty-five ; and Thornton's, fifty-three. I should think it preferable to 
take the route nearest the enemy, disabling him to make an important 
move without your knowledge, and compelling him to keep his forces 
together for dread of you. The gaps would enable you to attack if you 
should wish. For a great part of th» way you would be practically be- 
tween the enemy and both Washington and Richmond, enabling us to 
spare you the greatest number of troops from here. When, at length, 
running to Richmond ahead of him enables him to move this way, if he 



382 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

does so turn and attack him in the rear. But I think he should be en- 
gaged long before such point is reached. It is all easy if our troops 
march as well as the enemy, and it is unmanly to say they cannot do it. 
This letter is in no sense an order." 

Still the government urged the General forward, and still 
he had excuses for not going forward. His horses were fa- 
tigued, and had the sore tongue, he said; and the President 
could not forbear asking him what his horses had done since 
Antietam that would fatigue anything. The General did not 
like what the President said about his cavalry, and called 
out another note from Mr. Lincoln, who, under date of Oc- 
tober twenty-sixth, wrote him that if he had done any in- 
justice he deeply regretted it. He added: "To be told, after 
five weeks' total inactivity of the army, and during which 
period we had sent to that army every fresh horse we possibly 
could, amounting in the whole to 7,918, that the cavalry 
horses were too much fatigued to move, presented a very 
cheerless, almost hopeless prospect for the future." On the 
fifth of November, the army had crossed— just a month after 
the order to cross was given ; — and, of course, the rebels had 
made all the needful preparations, either for battle or retreat. 

But patience at Washington, tried long, and terribly tried, 
had become exhausted ; and, on the same day on which the 
General announced the army all across the Potomac, an order 
arrived relieving him of his command. 

Military men will judge this remarkable campaign in the 
light of their own science ; but the civilian will read its his- 
tory by the light of its results, and by the light of those later 
magnificent operations of Thomas in Tennessee, — of Sheridan 
in the Shenandoah valley and near Richmond, — of Sherman's 
march from Chattanooga through the heart of the rebellion 
and up the Atlantic coast, with cities falling before and on 
either side of him as if swept by a tornado, — and of Grant be- 
fore Vicksburg, or in the Wilderness and at Richmond, cap- 
turing whole armies, and finishing up a war so weakly begun. 
In the light of these operations, the campaign of McClellan 
looks like the work of a boy or the play of a man. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 883 

With General McClellan's motives, the writer has no desire 
to deal. That he became the favorite of men whose heart 
was not in the war, may well be considered his misfortune. 
That he became the representative of the party opposed to 
the administration m its general policy, on all subjects, was 
not inconsistent with his desire an I determination to do his 
whole military duty. That he entertained and acted upon the 
determination to injure the administration for political pur- 
poses, there is very little evidence ; and there is absolutely no 
evidence that the administration, through any jealousy of liim, 
withheld its support from him, that he might be ruined and 
put out of its way. Such a supposition cannot live a moment 
in the light of Mr. Lincoln's life. If there is one fact in 
McClellan's campaign that stands out with peculiar promi- 
nence, it is that both Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton sent him 
every man they could spare, consistently with the safety of 
the capital, by the General's own showing at first, and by the 
showing of events at last. On one side, we see the presump- 
tuous volunteering of general political and military advice, 
the unreasonable call for reinforcements when assured a^ain 
and' again that he had every man that could be given him, 
expostulations against government orders, quarreling with 
government arrangements, absolute criminations of the gov- 
ernment, unaccountable hesitations and boyish inefficiency ; 
while, on the other, there were almost unbroken respectfulness, 
patience and toleration, ardent desire for the best results, con- 
stant urgency to action, constant sacrifice of personal feeling 
and opinion, and a patent wish to do everything practicable 
or possible to give the commanding General everything he 
wanted. 

That General McClellan loved power, is evident ; and it is 
just as evident that it was not pleasant to him to share it with 
any one ; but, on the whole, there is no evidence that he was not 
a good, well-meaning, and patriotic man. The difficulty was 
that he was great mainly in his infirmities. He was not a 
great man, nor a great general. He was a good organizer of 
military force, and a good engineer ; he was a good theorizer, 



384 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

and wrote good English ; lie had that quality of personal mag- 
net ism which drew the hearts of his soldiers to him; but he 
was not a man of action, of expedients, of quick judgment, 
of dash and daring, ot great, heroic deeds. He was never 
ready. There were many evidences that -he held a theory of 
his own as to the mode of conducting the war, and that, in- 
dependently of the government, he endeavored to pursue it; 
but, even if he did, his failure must always be regarded as 
mainly due to constitutional peculiarities for which he was not 
responsible. 

This chapter should be concluded here, but space must be 
taken for a very brief record of the immediately succeeding 
fortunes of the army of the Potomac, and a hurried chronicle 
of the other military events of the year. On the retirement 
of General McClellan, General Burnside was placed in com- 
mand of the army of the Potomac ; and, at the same time, the 
rebel army commenced falling back upon Richmond. On the 
fourteenth, the army left its Camps, and marched for Freder- 
icksburg, arriving there at about the same time with the rebel 
army. Burnside was obliged to wait for his pontoons, and 
is was not until the twelfth of December that he was ready to 
cross. Only a feeble resistance was made to his passage, but 
it was a worse than fruitless procedure. The attempt to 
carry the hills was a failure, and he was obliged to withdraw 
his army, with a loss of from ten thousand to twelve thousand 
men. This gave a sad finishing up to the year's sad business, 
with this ill-starred army. 

The opening of the campaign of 1862 found the govern- 
ment with a newly created navy at its command. Mr. Welles, 
though reputed inefficient, had accomplished what no other 
man had ever done in an equal space of time. Not only were 
the southern ports efficiently blockaded, but materials for for- 
midable naval expeditions were prepared. General Burnside, 
at the head of an expedition, captured Roanoke Island on the 
eighth of February, with three thousand prisoners - s and sub- 
sequently engaged in other successful movements on the coast 
and up the rivers of North Carolina. On the nineteenth of 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 385 

June, Charleston was attacked, without success. In the lat- 
ter part of April, Forts Jackson and St. Philip, below New 
Orleans, were assailed by the fleet under Commodore Farra- 
gut, and so Car disalbed that they were passed. As a conse- 
quence, New Orleans fell into our hands, all the rebel troops 
fleeing the city. This affair was equally brilliant in its exe- 
cution and important in its results, and encouraged the gov- 
ernment as much as it distressed and discouraged its foes. 
Fort Pulaski, guarding the entrance to Savannah, was also 
taken, and that port effectually shut up. 

While these much desired, though hardly expected, suc- 
cesses attended the operations at the mouth of the Mississippi, 
events of equal importance were in progress on its tributaries. 
At the West movements were on a gigantic scale. The capture 
of Forts Henry and Donelson on the Cumberland River drew 
the enemy out of Bowling Green and Nashville, and gave us 
Columbus. General Price was driven out of Missouri. Isl- 
and Number Ten and Forts Pillow and Randolph all fell into 
our hands, and then our forces occupied Memphis. A com- 
bination of all the rebel armies at Corinth surprised our troops 
at Pittsburg Landing, under General Grant, on the morning 
of April sixth, with overwhelming numbers, and drove them 
back to the protection of our gunboats ; but on the following 
day, through the opportune arrival of General Buell, with his 
forces, the rebels were pushed back into retreat, with terrible 
losses, leaving our victorious army almost as badly punished 
as themselves. The victory was so decided that Mr. Lincoln 
was moved to issue a Proclamation of Thanksgiving, in which 
he also recognized the other victories that have been chron- 
icled. The people were called upon to " render thanks to our 
Heavenly Father for these inestimable blessings," and were 
also desired to "implore spiritual consolation in behalf of all 
those who have been brought into affliction by the casualties 
and calamities of civil war." 

The rebels fell back to Corinth, and, remaining there a few 
days, retired to Grenada. A powerful effort of General Brao-g 
to invade Kentucky, made later in the season, for the purpose 
25 



386 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

mainly of gathering reinforcements, encouraging the secession 
spirit, and collecting supplies, was a failure, in nearly every 
point ; and, after a battle at Terry ville, lie retreated. General 
Rosccrans was attacked at Corinth by a powerful confederate 
force, but he repulsed the rebels with great loss. At the very 
last of the year, there was a severe fight at Murfreesboro 
which resulted favorably to our arms; and the new year of 
1863 found a great advance made toward the entire redemp- 
tion of Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, from the presence 
of rebel armies and the prevalence of rebel influence. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

"WniLE these operations, pursued upon a most gigantic 
scale, for crushing the rebellion and defending the national 
existence were in progress, Mr. Lincoln was taking every op- 
portunity, personally and through his generals, to assure the 
people of the South that he meant them no ill. No father 
ever dealt more considerately and carefully with erring chil- 
dren than he did with those who had determined to break up 
the government. On the twenty-fifth of July, he issued a 
proclamation, in pursuance of a section in the confiscation act, 
passed by Congress a few days previously, warning all persons 
to cease participating in the rebellion, and adjuring them to 
return to their allegiance to the government, on pain of the 
forfeitures and seizures provided by the act. 

There had been men — and there continued to be through- 
out the war — who believed, or pretended to believe, that peace 
and Union could be won without war — that friendly negotia- 
tion would settle everything. There never was any basis 
for these fancies, except in rebel desires to embarrass the 
government, or in party policy among those opposed to the 
administration, or in the hearts of simple men who believed 
that reason and common sense had a place in the counsels of 
the rebel leaders. From the beginning of the rebellion to 
the end, there was not a time in which peace could have been 
procured, short of an acknowledgment of the independence 
of the confederate rebel states, as events have proved. Mr. 
Lincoln understood this, and understood better than the 



388 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

country generally the desperate men with whom he had to 
deal ; yet he never repelled those who thought they had found 
some way to peace besides the bloody way. Late in 1862, a 
period which showed decided advantages won by the Union 
forces, regarded as a whole, Fernando "Wood, the man who, 
as Mayor of New York, had advocated the separate secession 
of that metropolis and its erection into a free city, wrote Mr. 
Lincoln a letter, stating that, on the twenty-fifth of Novem- 
ber, he was reliably advised that "The southern states would 
send representatives to the next Congress," provided that a 
full and general amnesty should permit them to do so. Mr. 
Wood urged his point with ardent professions of loyalty, and 
with arguments drawn from Mr. Lincoln's inaugural; but 
Mr. Lincoln passed by his arguments and exhortations, and, 
in a reply dated December twelfth, said that the most impor- 
tant part of his (Wood's) letter related to the alleged fact 
that men from the South were ready to appear in Congress, 
on the terms stated. " I strongly suspect your information 
will prove to be groundless," said Mr. Lincoln; "nevertheless, 
I thank you for communicating it to me. Understanding the 
phrase in the paragraph above quoted, 'the southern states 
would send representatives to the next Congress,' to be sub- 
stantially the same as that 'the people of the southern states 
would cease resistance, and would re-inaugurate, submit to, 
and maintain, the national authority, within the limits of such 
states, under the Constitution of the United States,' I say 
that in such case the war would cease on the part of the 
United States, and that if, within a reasonable time, a full and 
o-eneral amnesty were necessary to such an end, it would not 
be withheld." 

Mr. Wood thought the President ought to make an eifort 
to verify his (Wood's) statement, by permitting a correspond- 
ence to take place between the rebels, and gentlemen "whose 
former political and social relations with the leaders of the 
southern revolt" would make them good media for the pur- 
pose, the correspondence all to be submitted to Mr. Lincoln. 
The latter, however, knew Mr. Wood, and knew that he bore 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. - s '» 

no good-will to him, or his administration, or the country; and 
he told him thai he did not think it would do any good to com- 
municate what he had said to the South, cither formally or 
informally, for they already knew it. Neither did he think it 
the time to stop military operations for negotiations. If Mr. 
Wood had any positive information, he should be glad to get 
it; and such information might he more valuable he fore the 
first of January than after it. At this, Mr. Wood was filled 
with "profound regret;" and proceeded to read Mr. Lincoln 
a solemn lecture on his Constitutional obligations, which, 
doubtless, made a profound impression upon the mind of the 
President, as he was not known, in a single instance, to be 
unmindful of those obligations afterwards. The kernel of 
this nut was In the words : " Your emancipation proclamation 
told of punishment. Let another be issued, speaking the lan- 
guage of mercy, and breathing the spirit of conciliation." 
Mr. AVood was interposing on behalf of his .southern friends, 
to prevent a final proclamation of emancipation ; and he knew 
this was to come on the first of January, and that Mr. Lin- 
coln's allusion to that date w r as a gentle hint to him that the 
executive purposes were undisturbed and that he was under- 
stood. 

But we are getting ahead of great events which were des- 
tined to have a radical influence upon the w r ar, upon the sen- 
timents and sympathies of Christendom, upon the social insti- 
tutions of the country, and the destinies of' a race. Mr. 
Wood's allusion to the emancipation proclamation touched a 
document and an event of immeasurable importance ; and to 
these we now turn our attention. 

Mr. Lincoln had tried faithfully, in accordance with his 
oath of office and his repeated professions, to save the Union 
without disturbing a sinrde institution which lived under it. 
He had warned the insurgent states of a measure touching 
slavery that their contumacy would render necessary. He 
had besought the border slave states to take themselves out 
of the way of that impending measure. He had braved the 
criminations and the impatience of his friends for his tender- 



390 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ness toward an institution -which the Constitution protected. 
He had been accused of being under the pro-slavery influence 
of the border states ; yet, during all this time, he had enter- 
tained the emancipation of the slaves as a measure which 
would be almost sure to come in time, and which he had de- 
termined should come just so goon as it could be justified to 
his own conscience and to history, as a military necessity. In 
no other event could he take this step, consistently with his 
oath. 

Emancipation was a measure of ineffable moment, and one 
which dwelt in Mr. Lincoln's thoughts by day and by night. 
By his own subsequent revelations, it was a measure which, 
upon his knees, he had presented to his Maker. The events 
of the Peninsular campaign were connected in his mind with 
the tenacity with which he held to the unchristian institution. 
He sought not only fqr the people's will upon the subject, but 
the will of God; and there is no question that he regarded 
the misfortunes of the army of the Potomac as providentially 
connected with the relations of the government to the great 
curse which was the motive of the rebellion. 

Fortunately, we have the record of Mr. Lincoln's reason- 
inn- upon the subject, in a letter which he wrote to Mr. A. 
G. Hodges of Frankfort, Kentucky, April 4th, 18G-1. Mr. 
Hodges had previously had a conversation with him, and had 
requested him to put into writing the substance of his re- 
marks. The President complied ; and, to show that he had 
acted in his emancipation policy purely upon military neces- 
sity, stated that, although he was naturally anti-slavery, and 
could not remember when he did not think and feel that slav- 
ery was wrong, he never understood that the presidency con- 
ferred upon him any right to act upon that judgment and feel- 
ing. He understood that his oath of office forbade the prac- 
tical indulgence of his abstract moral hatred of slavery. He 
had declared that, many times, in many ways. But he shall 
say the rest in his own language : 

" I did understand, however, that very oath to preserve the Constitu- 
tion to the best of my ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving, 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 391 

by every indispensable means, that government — that nation of which 
that Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the na- 
tion and yet preserve the Constitution? 15y general law, life and limb 
must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life, 
but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, 
otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful by becoming indispens- 
able to the preservation of the Constitution through the preservation of 
the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. 
I could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to pre- 
serve the Constitution, if, to preserve slavery, or any minor matter, I 
should permit the wreck of government, country, and Constitution al- 
together. When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted military 
emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispens- 
able necessity. When, a Uttle later, General Cameron, then Secretary of 
War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected, because I did not 
yet think it an indispensable necessity.* When, still later, General 
Hunter attempted military emancipation, I again forbade it, because I 
did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come. When, in 
March and May and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals 
to the border states to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the 
indispensable necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks 
would come, unless averted by that measure. They declined the prop- 
osition; and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of 
either surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying 
strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter." 

With Mr. Lincoln's statement of the results of his action, 
which completes the letter, we have nothing at present to do. 

We have thus the political and military reasons for pro- 
claiming emancipation in Mr. Lincoln's own language; and 
we are scarcely less fortunate in a record of his personal 
struggles and feelings, made by Mr. F. B. Carpenter, who 
had the privilege of frequent intimate conversations with Mr. 
Lincoln, while he was employed at the White House, upon 
his picture commemorative of a scene in the event itself. 

It was mid-summer in 1862, when, things having gone on 

* This allusion is to a passage of Mr. Cameron's annual report, which 
he had sent off to the press for publication without receiving Mr. Lin- 
coln's approval. The publication of the objectionable paragraph was 
suppressed by telegraph from Washington, while the fact that Mr. Cam- 
eron ventured upon such an act without considting the President, occa- 
sioned him great annoyance and vexation. 



392 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

from bad to worse, he felt that he must "change his tactics of 
lose his game." So, without consulting his cabinet, or giv- 
ing them any knowledge of what he was doing, he prepared 
the original draft of the Proclamation. Now it should be re- 
membered, in order to understand Mr. Lincoln's peculiarity 
of arguino 1 against his own conclusions, until his time should 
come for uttering them, that this was before the date of his 
letter to Horace Greeley, already given to the reader, in which 
he o-ives no hint of his determination, but only lays out the 
ground upon which he should make it. It was also previous 
to a visit which he received from a body of Chicago clergy- 
men, who called to urge upon him the emancipation policy. 
The proclamation was all written; and it was a full month 
after its utterance had been determined on in Cabinet meet- 
ing when he told these clergymen : " I do not want to issue 
a document that the whole world will see must necessarily be 
inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet." He 
wished them, however, not to misunderstand him. He had 
simply indicated some of the difficulties that had stood in his 
way ; but he had not decided against a proclamation of liberty 
to the slaves. "Whatever shall appear to be God's will,"' 
said he, "I will do." Throughout this affair, and indeed in 
all the great affairs in which he took part, he followed the old 
practice of his legal career, of arguing his opponent's side of 
the question — often for the simple purpose, evidently, of win- 
ning support for his own convictions. 

Sometime during the last of July, or the first part of Au- 
gust, he called a cabinet meeting. None of the members 
knew the occasion of the meeting, and for some time they 
were unable to ascertain, for there was a delay. What was 
its cause? Here was an august body of men. All the cabi- 
net were present excepting Mr. Blair, who came in afterwards. 
Mr. Lincoln had before him a document which he kneAV was 
to perpetuate his name to all futurity, — a document which in- 
volved the liberty of four millions of human beings then liv- 
ing, and of untold millions then unborn, — which changed the 
policy of the government and the course and character of the 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 893 

"war, — which revolutionized the social institutions of more 
than a third of the nation, — which brought all the govern-' 
ments of Christendom into new relations to the rebellion, — and 
which involved Mr. Lincoln's recognition of the will of the 
Divine Ruler of the universe. It was the supreme moment 
of his life. Did he feel it to be so? He did; and he took his 
own way of showing it. He took down from a shelf a copy of 
"Artemus Ward — His Book," and read an entire chapter of 
that literary harlequin's drollery, giving himself up to laugh- 
ter the most hearty, until some of the dignified personages 
around him were far more pained than amused. Little did 
those men understand the pressure of the occasion upon Mr. 
Lincoln's mind, and the necessity of this diversion. 

A member of this noble and notable group lias said that, 
on closing the trifling volume, the Avhole tone and manner of 
the President changed instantaneously ; and, risinc to a <rrand- 
eur of demeanor that inspired in all a profound respect, akin 
to awe, he announced to them the object of the meeting. lie 
had written a proclamation of emancipation, and had deter- 
mined to issue it. He had not called them together to ask 
their advice on the general question, because he had deter- 
mined it for himself. He wished to inform them of his pur- 
pose, and to receive such suggestions upon minor points as 
they might be moved to make. Mr. Chase wished the lan- 
guage stronger with reference to arming the blacks. Mr. 
Blair deprecated the policy, because it would cost the admin- 
istration the fall elections ; but nothing was said which the 
President had not anticipated, until Mr. Seward said : " Mr. 
President, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the 
expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression of 
the public mind consequent upon our repeated reverses is so 
great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It may 
be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government — 
a cry for help — the government stretching forth its hands to 
Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to 
the government — our last shriek on the retreat." He further 
advised Mr. Lincoln to postpone the measure until it could be 



9 
894 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

given to the country supported by military success, rather 
than after the greatest disasters of the war. 

Mr. Lincoln admitted the force of the suo-crestion. and so 
the matter was suspended for a brief period. This was be- 
fore General Pope's retreat upon Washington, and the inva- 
sion of Maryland ; and during all these disasters the procla- 
mation waited, though it was occasionally taken out and 
retouched. At last came the battle of Antietam, and the 
news of national success met Mr. Lincoln at the Soldier's 
Home. There he immediately wrote the second draft of the 
preliminary proclamation, and came back to Washington on 
Saturday of that week, and held a cabinet meeting, at which 
he declared that the time for the enunciation of the emanci- 
pation policy could no longer be delayed. Public sentiment, 
he thought, would sustain it; many of his warmest friends 
and supporters demanded it; "and," said Mr. Lincoln, in 
a low and reverent tone, "I have promised my God that I 
will do it." These last words were hardly heard by any 
one but Mr. Chase, who sat nearest to him. Mr. Chase 
inquired: "Did I understand you correctly, Mr. President?" 
Mr. Lincoln replied: "I made a solemn vow before God that, 
if General Lee should be driven back from Pennsylvania, 
I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to 
the slaves." 

This statement was made by Mr. Chase to Mr. Carpenter, 
and docs not differ materially from one communicated to t-he 
writer by Hon. George S. Boutvvell of Massachusetts. Mr. 
Boutwell, then in Washington, determined in October to visit 
Massachusetts, and take a part in the state canvass ; and pre- 
vious to his departure he called upon Mr. Lincoln. In the 
course of the interview, he told the President that an active 
leader of the People's Party in Massachusetts had asserted, 
in a public speech, that Mr. Lincoln was frightened into issu- 
ing the emancipation proclamation, by the meeting of loyal 
governors at Altoona, Pennsylvania, which had occurred dur- 
ing the summer. "Now," said the President, dropping into 
a chair, as if he meant to be at ease, "I can tell you just how 



LIFK OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 395 

that was. When Lcc camo over the river, I made a resolve 
that when McClellan should drive him back, — and I expected 
he would do it some time or other, — 1 would send the procla- 
mation after him. I worked upon it, and got it pretty much 
prepared. The battle of Antietam was fought <m Wednesday, 
but 1 could not find out till Saturday whether Ave had really Avon 
a victory or not. It was then too late to issue the proclama- 
tion that week, and I dressed it over a little on Sunday, and 
Monday I gave it to them. The fact is, I never thought of 
the meeting of the gOA^ernors at Altoona, and I can hardly re- 
member that I kneAV anything about it.*' 

On Monday, the 22d of September, 1862, the proclamation 
Avas issued. Even from this sAvecping measure he had left an 
opportunity to escape. It Avas only a preliminary proclama- 
tion. It only declared free the slaves of those states and 
those sections of states which should be in rebellion on the 
1st of January, lbCo, leaving to every rebel state an oppor- 
tunity to save its pet institution by becoming loyal, and doing 
what it could to save the Union: 

"I, Abraham Lixcolx, President of the United States of America, 
and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy thereof, do hereby pro- 
claim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prose- 
cuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation 
between the United States and each of the states, and the people 
thereof, iu which states that relation is or may be suspended or dis- 
turbed. 

" That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again 
recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary 
aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all slave states so-called the 
people Avhereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States, 
and which states may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may 
voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within 
their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of Afri- 
can descent, with their consent, upon this continent or elsewhere, with 
the previously obtained consent of the governments existing there, will 
be continued. 

" That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thou- 
sand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within 
any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then 



396 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN. 

be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, 
and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, 
including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to re- 
press such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for 
their actual freedom. 

" That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by 
proclamation, designate the states and parts of states, if any, in which 
the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the 
United States ; and the fact that any state, or the people thereof, shall 
on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United 
States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of 
the qualified voters of such state shall have participated, shall, in the 
absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evi- 
dence that such state, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion 
against the United States. 

" That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress entitled ' An 
Act to make an additional Article of War,' approved March 13th, 18G2, 
and which act is in the words and figures following : 

iil Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter the following 
shall be promulgated as an additional article of war for the government 
of the army of the United States, and shall be obeyed and observed as 
such : 

" ' Article — All officers or persons in the military or naval service 
of the United States are prohibited from employing any of the forces 
under their respective commands for the purpose of returning fugitives 
from service or labor who may have escaped from any persons to whom 
such service or labor is claimed to be due; and any officer who shall be 
found guilty by a court-martial of violating this article shall be dis- 
missed from the service.' 

"'Sec. 2. And be it farther enacted, That this act shall take effect 
from and after its passage.' 

" Also, to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled ' An Act to 
suppress Insurrection, to punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and 
confiscate Property of Rebels, and for other purposes,' approved July 
lGth, 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures following: 

"'Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who 
shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the 
United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, es- 
caping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the 
army ; and all slaves captured from such persons, or deserted by them, 
and coining under the control of the government of the United States; 
and all slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place oc- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 397 

copied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by forces of the United 
States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of 
their servitude, and not again held as slaves. 

"' Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any 
state, territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other state, shall 
be delivered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, 
except for crime, or some offense against the laws, unless the person 
claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom 
the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful 
owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present 
rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person 
engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, 
under any pretense whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the 
claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or sur- 
render up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed 
from the service.* 

" And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the 
military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and 
enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the act and sections 
above recited. 

"And the Executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of 
the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout 
the rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation 
between the United States and their respective states and people, if 
that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated 
for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves. 

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the 
seal of the United States to be affixed. 

" Done at the city of Washington, this tenth day of April, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of 
[l. s.] the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. 

"Abraham Lincoln. 

" By the President : 

"Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State." 

In the cabinet meeting held previous to the issue of the 
proclamation, Mr. Lincoln had concluded the reading of the 
third paragraph, when Mr. Seward interrupted him by say- 
ing: "Mr. President, I think that you should insert after 
the word, 'recognize,' the words, 'and maintain.'" The Pres- 
ident replied that he had fully considered the import of the 
expression, and that it was not his way to promise more than 
he was sure he could perform; # and he was not prepared to 



398 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

say that he thought he was able to "maintain'* this. Mr. 
Seward insisted that the ground should be taken, and the 
words finally went in. 

The proclamation was received with profound interest by 
the whole country. The radical anti-slavery men were de- 
lighted, conservative politicians shrugged their shoulders 
doubtfully, and the lovers of the peculiar institution gnashed 
their teeth. It is very doubtful whether it affected the fall 
elections so much adversely to Mr. Lincoln, as the fact that 
he was ignorantly or maliciously held responsible for the blun- 
ders of McClellan's campaign. If it affected them at all un- 
favorably, its influence in that direction soon ceased ; and the 
proclamation became his tower of strength in the sight of his 
own people and the peoples of the world. 

Two days after the issue of the proclamation, a large body 
of men assembled before the White House with music, and 
called for the President. He appeared, and addressed to them 
a few words of thanks for their courtesy, and, in alluding to 
the proclamation, said: "What I did, I did after a very full 
deliberation, and under a heavy and solemn sense of respon- 
sibility. I can only trust in God I have made no mistake."' 
After two years of experience he was enabled to say: "As 
affairs have turned, it is the central act of my administration, 
and the great event of the nineteenth century." 

It will be remembered that General McClellan had warned 
Mr. Lincoln against the effect of a general policy of emanci- 
pation upon his army. He thought that such a policy would 
cause its disintegration. It certainly became a theme of angry 
discussion ; — so much so that, on the seventh of October, the 
General felt called upon to issue an order reminding officers 
and soldiers of their relations and their duties to the civil au- 
thorities. It was an admirable order, and evidently well in- 
tended. "Discussion by officers and soldiers concerning pub- 
lic measures, determined upon and declared by the govern- 
ment," said he, "when carried beyond the ordinary temperate 
and respectful expression of opinion, tends greatly to impair 
and destroy the discipline and efficiency of the troops, by 



LIFE OF ABRAIIAM LINCOLN. 399 

substituting the spirit of political faction, for the firm, steady, 
and earnest support of the authority of the government, 
■which is the highest duty of the American soldier." If there 
was any fault to be found with the order, it was connected 
with the time of its promulgation. It was issued the day af- 
ter Mr. Lincoln left the army, which., it will be remembered, 
he visited while it rested from the battle of Antietam. Gen- 
eral McClellan had learned something during that visit. lie 
had learned that, notwithstanding Mr. Lincoln's proclamation, 
he was held in strong and enthusiastic affection by the army. 
For nearly a week, he mingled with the weary officers and 
soldiers, meeting the heartiest reception everywhere. A gen- 
eral officer who was with the President on the trip, said: "I 
watched closely to see if, in any division, or regiment, I could 
find symptoms of dissatisfaction, or could hear an allusion to the 
proclamation. I found none. I heard only words of praise." 

It was undoubtedly the aim of traitors outside of the army, 
and of their sympathizers within, to alienate the army from 
the President and the government; but they failed. One 
Major Key came down from the army to Washington, with 
the story that our Generals did not push the advantages they 
had Avon, because it was not considered desirable to crush the 
rebellion at once, if, indeed, at all ; but so to manage affairs as 
to secure a compromise as the result of a prolonged war. It is 
quite probable that he had heard this talk among the leading 
officers, as he declared he had. One thing was evident — that 
he agreed with their policy; and, telling Mr. Lincoln plainly 
so to his face, he was at once removed from the service. The 
example served an excellent purpose ; and, with McClellan's 
order, and the effect of Mr. Lincoln's personal visit, brought 
the disloyal and factious elements of the army into their 
proper relations to the government and its policy. 

On the 1st of January, 1863, the final proclamation of 
emancipation was issued, and the great act was complete. It 
was as follows: 

" Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation 



400 LIFE OF ABRAIIAM LINCOLN. 

was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among 
other things, the following, to wit : 

"'That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thou- 
sand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within 
any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then 
be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, 
and forever free ; and the Executive government of the United States, 
including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to re- 
press such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for 
their actual freedom. 

"'That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by 
proclamation, designate the states and parts of states, if any, in which 
the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the 
United States; and the fact that any state or the people thereof shall 
on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United 
States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of 
the qualified voters of such state shall have participated, shall, in the 
absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evi- 
dence that such state, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion 
against the United States.' 

"Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of 
the army and navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebel- 
lion against the authority and government of the United States, and as 
a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on 
this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, 
publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the 
day first above mentioned, order and designate, as the states and parts 
of states wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebel- 
lion against the United States, the following, to wit : 

" Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, 
Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, As- 
sumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Marie, St. Martin and Orleans, 
including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Geor- 
gia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty- 
eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of 
Berkely, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, 
and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and 
which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this procla- 
mation were not issued. 

"And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do or- 
der and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 401 

States and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and 
that the Executive Government of the United States, including the 
military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the 
freedom of said persons. 

" And 1 hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to ab- 
stain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense ; and I recommend 
to them, that in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for reason- 
able wages. 

" And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable 
condition will be received into the armed service of the United States, 
to garrison forts, positions, stations and other places, and to man vessels 
of all sorts in said service. 

"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, war- 
ranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the con- 
siderate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God. 

"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, and caused the 
seal of the United States to be affixed. 

"Done at the city of "Washington, this first day of January, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of 
[l. s.] the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. 

"Abraiiaji Lincoln. 

" By the President: 

" William H. Seward, Secretary of State." 

A single paragraph in this proclamation was written by 
Secretary Chase. He had himself prepared a proclamation, 
which embodied his views, and had submitted it to Mr. Lin- 
coln. Mr. Lincoln selected from it this.sentence : "And upon 
this act, believed to be an act of justice warranted by the 
Constitution [upon military necessity,] I invoke the consider- 
ate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty 
God;" and adopted it, interpolating only the words between 
brackets. It is an illustration of Mr. Lincoln's freedom from 
vanity, first that he adopted the words at all, notwithstand- 
ing their dignity and beauty ; and, second, that he freely told 
of the circumstance, so that it found publicity through his 
own revelations. 

On the twenty-fourth of September, two days after the 
issue of the preliminary proclamation, Mr. Lincoln gave ut- 
terance to a proclamation suspending the writ of habeas cor- 
pus. Proceeding from the fact that the ordinary processes 
26 



402 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of law were not sufficient to restrain disloyal persons from 
hindering the execution of a draft of militia which had been 
ordered, discouraging enlistments, and giving aid and comfort 
ia various ways to the insurrection, he declared the writ of 
habeas corpus suspended, touching all persons who should be 
arrested, confined, or sentenced by court martial, for these 
offenses. The measure created great dissatisfaction, particu- 
larly among those who were not in favor of the war, and those 
who were anxious to make political headway against the ad- 
ministration. There was an outcry against "military despot- 
ism," against the " abridgment of the right of free speech," 
against the "suppression of the liberty of the press," etc. 
etc.; the freedom with which these strictures were made, 
without attracting the slightest notice of the government, re- 
futing the charges as rapidly as they were uttered. 

At the succeeding session of » Congress, these complaints 
had immediate expression ; and the proclamation was furiously 
attacked at once. Eesolutions were introduced, censuring the 
"arbitrary arrest" of persons in the loyal states; and the 
suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was vehemently de- 
nounced. It appeared by these demonstrations that the public 
liberty was endangered, and that the Constitution was sub- 
verted. It is possible that some of those engaged in this 
outcry were honest in their fears and denunciations ; but some 
of them were notorious sympathizers with the rebels, and 
were doing, and had done everything in their power to aid 
the rebellion. Nothing was more notorious than that th'e 
country abounded with spies and informers, and men who 
discouraged enlistments, and counseled resistance to a draft. 
Congress, however, was on the side of the government, and 
passed a bill sustaining the President, and indemnifying him 
and all who acted under him in the execution of his policy. 
It is quite possible that injustice was done in some of these 
"arbitrary arrests" — it would be strange, indeed, if it were 
otherwise — but the prophets of the degeneracy of the gov- 
ernment into a military despotism have their answer now, in 
the peaceful and ready return to the old status. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 403 

There was one vice of the arm}'- that gave Mr. Lincoln 
great pain; anil that was the unnecessary disregard of the 
Sabbath. Armies, of course, cannot always be good Sabbath- 
keepers; but he saw in them a disposition to do work on that 
day not at all necessary, and to engage in sports quite in dis- 
sonance with its spirit. So, on the sixteenth of November, 
he issued a circular letter upon the subject, in which he told 
the soldiers that "the importance for man and beast of the 
prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers 
and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a 
Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine Will, de- 
mand that Sunday labor in the army and navy be reduced to 
the measure of strict necessity." He continued: "The dis- 
cipline and character of the national forces should not suffer, 
nor the cause they defend be imperiled, by the profanation of 
the day, or the name of the Most High." The letter shows 
how closely he had associated the will of the Most High with 
the national cause, and how profound was his reverence for 
the institutions of Christianity. 

This chapter, and the record of the events of the year, can- 
not be better closed, perhaps, than by an incident which 
shows that, in Mr. Lincoln's greatest necessity for popular 
support, he disdained, with all the strength of his old sense of 
justice and fairness, any trick for gaining that support. After 
New Orleans was taken, and a certain portion of the state 
reclaimed and held by military power, movements were com- 
menced for the representation of the state in Congress. Mr. 
Lincoln was charged with conniving with this movement 
and with intending to secure members of Congress from Lou- 
isiana, elected under military pressure, who would assist in 
maintaining his policy, and make a show of the returning loy- 
alty of the state. On the twenty-first of November, he wrote 
to G. F. Shepley, the military governor of Louisiana, as fol- 
lows : 

"Dear Sir— Dr. Kennedy, bearer of this, has some apprehension that 
Federal officers, not citizens of Louisiana, may be set up as candidates 
for Congress in that state. In my view, there could be no possible ob- 



404 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ject in such an election. We do not particularly need members of 
Congress from those states to enable us to get along with legisla- 
tion here. What we do want is the conclusive evidence that respecta- 
ble citizens of Louisiana are willing to be members c*f Congress, and to 
swear support to the Constitution ; and that other respectable citizens 
there are willing to vote for them and send them. To send a parcel of 
northern men here as representatives, elected as would be understood 
(and perhaps really so), at the point of the bayonet, would be disgrace- 
ful and outrageous ; and, were I a member of Congress here, I would 
vote against admitting any such man to a seat." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The events of 1863, legislative, military, and personal as 
they relate to Mr. Lincoln, must receive only a brief and con- 
densed review. It will have been noticed, by several incidents 
that have been recorded in this narrative, and by sundry pa- 
pers of Mr. Lincoln, that, during the whole of his presidency 
thus far, he had indulged in projects of colonization of the 
freed blacks. Congress had so far regarded his suggestions 
as to place at his disposal a sum of money for experiments in 
colonization. In August, 1862, he called to the Executive 
Mansion a representative company of negroes whom he famil- 
iarly addressed on the subject, freely telling them of the dis- 
advantages under which they labored, expressing his convic- 
tions that they suffered much by living in association with the 
whites, and uttering his conviction that the whites suffered by 
living with them, even when they were free. His wish was 
to have them colonized at some point in Central America ; and 
he promised to spend some of the money intrusted to him, if 
they would join in sufficient numbers to make an experiment. 

In his message delivered to Congress on the opening of the 
session of 1862-63, he called up the subject again ; and com- 
municated information of the measures he had taken, for effect- 
ing his wishes, and securing to the blacks the benefits of the 
congressional provision. He had had correspondence with 
some of the Spanish- American republics, and they had pro- 
tested against the reception of black colonies. He had declined 
to move any colonists forward, under the circumstances, and 



406 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

should still desist, unless they could be protected. Liberia 
and Ilnyti were the* only countries to which they could go, 
with the certainty of immediate adoption as citizens ; and the 
blacks manifested a strange indisposition to emigrate to those 
countries. 

This dream of colonization, in which Mr. Lincoln so be- 
nevolently indulged, was destined to fail of even partial real- 
ization. He loved the negro too well to wish him to remain 
where the prejudices of race would shut him out from the full 
recognition of his manhood. He not only Avanted him free, 
but he wanted him located where he might receive all the 
rights of citizenship, and where he could live — self-respectful 
and independent — in the society of his equals and his race. 
It was a matter of pitying wonder with him that the negro 
should love to live with a race that abused him, and held him 
at so low a value in the scale of humanity. 

All the closing portion of this message was devoted to an 
earnest discussion of the scheme of compensated emancipa- 
tion. Notwithstanding he had issued his preliminary procla- 
mation of freedom to the slaves of rebels, and expected soon 
to complete that work; and notwithstanding hie conviction 
that slavery could not long survive this proclamation, even in 
the loyal slave states, he never forgot that neither over 
slavery in these states, the Constitution nor the necessities of 
war gave him any control. One thing he did forget, viz: 
that these states had uniformly turned their backs upon all 
his earnest and kindly efforts to save them from a loss which 
he was certain must ultimately fall upon them. 

With the exposition of his views upon this subject, Mr. Lin- 
coln submitted the draft of a resolution embodying his policy. 
This resolution proposed certain articles as amendments to the 
Constitution of the United States, to be acted upon by the leg- 
islatures or conventions of the several states. These articles, 
by being adopted by the legislatures of three-fourths of the 
states, should become valid, and be held as parts of the Con- 
stitution. They provided that every slave state which should 
voluntarily abolish the slave system at any date previous to 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 407 

the year 1000, should receive :i specified compensation. Slaves 
who should be freed by the chances of war should remain free, 
though loyal masters should receive compensation for them. 
The closing article provided that ( longresa might "appropriate 
money, and otherwise; provide for colonizing free colored per- 
sons, with their own consent, at any place or places without 
the United States." 

Sudden emancipation was never in accordance with Mr. 
Lincoln's judgment. Nothing but the necessities of war 
would have induced him to decree it with relation to the slaves 
of any state. His thought was, that, by giving every state 
the opportunity to terminate slavery in its own way, within a 
period of thirty-seven years, the institution could be removed 
without a shock to the prosperity and the social institutions of 
the whites, and without bringing to the blacks a freedom which 
many of them, at least, Avould not know how to use. The 
stress of feeling under which he urged this measure, is suffi- 
ciently exhibited by the closing paragraph of the message : 
"Fellow citizens," — thus reads the passage — "AVe cannot 
escape history. "We of this Congress, and this Administration, 
will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal sig- 
nificance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The 
fiery trial through which Ave pass will light us down in honor 
or dishonor to the latest generation. AVe say that we are for 
the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We 
know how to save the Union. The world knoAvs Ave knoAV 
how to save it. * * * In giving freedom to the slave, Ave as- 
sure freedom to the free — honorable alike in Avhat Ave give 
and Avhat Ave preserve. "We shall nobly save or meanly lose 
the last, best hope of earth. Other means may suceeed; 
this could not, cannot, fail. The Avay is plain, peaceful, gen- 
erous, just — a Avay which, if folloAvcd, the world will forever 
applaud, and God must forever bless." 

Allusion has been made, in the preceding chapter, to the 
action of this session, on the subject of arbitrary arrests ; and 
the subject does not need to be recalled further than to say 
that the discussion which it excited fully illustrated the polit- 



408 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ical antagonisms which, prevalent among the people, were 
brought into thorough exposition by their representatives. 
In the precise degree in which the members of both houses 
sympathized with treason, or were exercised by their party 
feelings against the general policy of the government toward 
the rebellion, did they oppose the suspension of the writ of 
habeas corpus. The same rule held good, with rare exceptions, 
with relation to the discussion of a project for arming the 
blacks. There were some friends of the government from the 
border states who were very timid and doubtful about the 
adoption of this measure: but the majority of the House 
agreed to it; and the Senate would undoubtedly have done 
the same, had not the committee to which the- matter was re- 
ferred reported that the President already had the power to 
call persons of African descent into the military and naval 
service, by an act passed during the previous session. 

The same antagonisms were exhibited concerning a measure 
for enrolling and drafting the militia of the different states, so 
that each state should be compelled to contribute its equitable 
quota, the troops when raised to be under the control of tho 
President. The absolute necessity of this measure was at- 
tributable partly to the stage at which the war had arrived — 
when the surplus population was all in the army, and it was 
essential to draw upon the vital resources of the country — 
and partly to party feeling and party policy. Either through 
the failure of McClellan's campaign, or the effect of the eman- 
cipation proclamation, or the influence of both together, the 
administration had received a rebuke through the autumn 
elections of 1862. This had greatly encouraged the opposi- 
tion, who, as opponents of the war, or as most unreliable 
friends of the President's war policy, so conducted their coun- 
sels that the government became fearful concerning its ability 
to raise men for the campaign of 1863. Just in proportion 
to the treasonable sympathies of the members of the Senate 
and the House, did they oppose the measure. The bill was 
finally passed and approved ;. and it became an efficient instru- 
ment in the hands of the government for prosecuting the war. 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 409 

It contained provisions for procuring substitutes, for exemp- 
tion by the payment of three hundred dollars, a clause defin- 
ing the conditions of exemption, &c. 

Much of the session was devoted to a discussion of meas- 
ures of finance, which ended in giving the Secretary of the 
Treasury leave to borrow nine hundred millions of dollars, 
bearing six per cent interest, payable in not less than ten nor 
more than forty years. The Secretary was authorized to issue 
four hundred millions in treasury notes bearing interest, and 
a hundred and fifty millions without interest. To meet the 
immediate necessities of the army and navy, especially as they 
related to debts due the soldiers and sailors, authority was 
given for the issue fcf one hundred millions of treasury notes, 
before the leading measures of finance were perfected. 

The latter measure was signed by the President at once, in 
order that the soldiers and marines might have their due ; but 
he took occasion, in a special message, to express his regret 
that it had been found necessary to make so large an addi- 
tional issue of United States notes, at a time when the com- 
bined circulation of those notes and the notes of the suspended 
banks had advanced the prices of everything beyond real 
values, augmenting the cost of living, to the injury of labor, 
and the cost of supplies, to the injury of the country. "It 
seems very plain," he said, "that continued issues of United 
States notes, without any check to the issues of suspended 
banks, and without adequate provision for the raising of money 
by loans, and for funding the issues, so as to keep them within 
due limits, must soon produce disastrous consequences." He 
had already, in his annual message, advocated the national bank 
system for the production of a uniform currency, secured by 
the pledge of United States bonds, thus increasing the demand 
for the bonds. A bill for the object desired was passed by 
small majorities, and approved. It was a doubtful measure, and 
touched a great many selfish and corporate interests, carrying 
more or less of disturbance into the various financial systems 
of the states ; but the country has had no reason to find fault 
with its results. 



410 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Two events during the session marked the beginning of 
those reconstructive measures which were destined eventually 
to embrace all the members of the old Union. Western Vir- 
ginia, loyal from the first, was admitted into the Union as a 
state ; and two representatives from Louisiana were admitted 
to the House, under the representation, on the part of the 
committee to which their application was referred, that they 
had been elected in accordance with the constitutional condi- 
tions and provisions of that state. 

"When Congress adjourned, it left the Executive strong in 
all the powers and prerogatives necessary for the successful 
prosecution of the war. The president's hands were strength- 
ened by competent financial provisions, by the confirmation 
of his power to arrest and hold suspicious and inimical per- 
sons, and by authority to levy upon the militia of the states 
for such force as might be necessary to effect the purposes of 
the government. His efforts for measures of compensated 
emancipation failed. A single measure concerning Missouri 
miscarried through the failure of the House to confirm the 
action of the Senate. 

On the twenty-second of November, 1862, two months after 
Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation suspending the privilege 
of the writ of habeas corpus, the opponents of the government 
became so quiet that an order was issued from the TV ar Depart- 
ment, discharging from further military restraint all those per- 
sons who had been arrested for discouraging volunteer enlist- 
ments, opposing the draft, or otherwise giving aid and comfort 
to the enemy, in all states where the draft had been effected, or 
the quota of volunteers and militia had been furnished. The 
order also released persons held in military custody who had 
been arrested for disloyalty by the military governors of rebel 
states, on giving their parole to do no act of hostility against 
the United States. They had the liberty to live under mili- 
tary surveillance; or to go to the rebel states, not to return 
until after the war, or until they should bo permitted to do so 
by the President. The suspension of the writ, and the acts 
which accompanied it, accomplished their object tempora- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 411 

rily; but, at the close of the session of Congress, in March, 
the more malicious of the malcontents began their foul work 
again. Undoubtedly the country was tired of the war; and 
many of the weaker and more unreasoning classes, finding 
themselves more than ever m the hands of the government by 
the legislation of the winter, lent willing ears to disloyal pol- 
iticians. Agitation against the Avar was revived. Tlu3 people 
were called upon to mark the great sacrifices they had already 
uselessly made; the war was declared to be a failure, and 
peace as far off as ever; and the country was adjured to de- 
mand a cessation of the coercive policy. 

Among the most pestilent of these sympathizers with trait- 
ors, was Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio — a person who, 
as member of Congress, stump politician and private citizen, 
had opposed the Avar from the start. In Congress, he had 
steadily voted against every measure instituted by the govern- 
ment for maintaining the integrity of the nation and putting 
down the rebellion. Not a step did the President take, in the 
execution of his purpose, that Vallandigham did not dispute. 
Indeed, he offered in the House resolutions of censure for 
those early acts of the President in calling out a military 
force, by which alone Washington Avas saved from capture. 
His language in the House had been so bitter and disloyal 
that the feelings of every friend of the government had been 
outraged. Going home from Congress, Avhere he had been 
engaged in his foul work, he entered upon a eam'ass of his 
district, denouncing the go\ r ernment, and maligning its mo- 
tives. The tendency of his malicious utterances Avas to 
Aveaken the hands of the Executive in its great work of sub- 
duing the insurrection, and to give aid and comfort to the 
national enemies. 

General Burnside, then in command of the Department of 
the Ohio, issued an ofder (Number 38,) announcing that 
thereafter all persons found Avithin the federal lines Avho 
should commit acts for the benefit of the enemy would be 
tried as spies or traitors ; and, if convicted, Avould suffer death. 
This order, the demagogue publicly denounced; and then he 



412 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

called upon the people to resist its execution. General Burn- 
side arrested him at once, and ordered him to be tried by court- 
martial at Cincinnati. On the fifth of May, the day follow- 
ing his arrest, he applied to the United States Circuit Court 
for a writ of habeas corpus; and, after an elaborate argument 
from his counsel, and the reading of a long letter from Gen- 
eral Burnside giving the reasons for his arrest, Judge Leavitt 
decided against his application, giving his opinion that " The 
legality of the arrest depends upon the extent of the necessity 
for making it ; and that was to be determined by the military 
commander." Judge Leavitt dealt with the case nobly. 
"Those who live under the protection and enjoy the blessings 
of our benignant government," said he, "must learn that they 
cannot stab its vitals with impunity. If they remain with us, 
while they are not of us, they must be subject to such a course 
of dealing as the great law of self-preservation prescribes and 
will enforce." Further, he said: "I confess I am but little 
moved by the eloquent appeals of those who, while they in- 
dignantly denounce violation of personal liberty, look with no 
horror upon a despotism .as unmitigated as the world has ever 
witnessed." 

On the following day, Vallandigham had his trial, was con- 
victed, and was sentenced to confinement in some fortress of 
the United States, to 'be designated by General Burnside, who 
approved the finding of the court, and designated Fort Warren 
as his prison. The President, however, modified the sentence, 
and directed that the convict should be sent within the rebel 
lines, among the people which he held in such cordial sympa- 
thy, with the direction that he should not return until after 
the termination of the war. The man thus sent to his own 
found safe conduct through the rebel states, and managed to 
reach Canada, from whose territory he subsequently emerged, 
without waiting for the termination of the war, and without 
saying to the President, "By your leave." 

There were numbers of men in the loyal states who were 
quite as guilty as Mr. Vallandigham, even if less bold than 
he. These took alarm. If Mr. Vallandigham could be ar- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 413 

rested and sent within the rebel lines for abusing the motives 
and acts o 4 f the government, who, that sympathized with Mr. 
Vallandigham, -was safe? It was a natural and pertinent in- 
quiry. So they began to hold public meetings, to denounce 
the government, and to call upon the President to reconsider 
his act in Vallandigham's case. Governor Seymour of New 
York was powerfully exercised in the matter, and wrote a very 
spirited letter to one of these meetings held in Albany, on the 
sixteenth of May. If the Ohio demagogue used treasonable 
language, it is hard to see why the New York governor did 
not. The sanction of the act by which Vallandigham was 
sent among his friends, by President and people, was, in his 
opinion, not only despotism but revolution. He almost copied 
the language of the convict himself. Mr. Vallandigham had 
said that the government was aiming not to restore the Union, 
but to crush out liberty. Governor Seymour said: "The 
action of the administration will determine, in the minds of 
more than one half of the people in the loyal states, whether 
this war is waged to put down rebellion in the South, or de- 
stroy free institutions at the North." 

This meeting and others of the same kind, held in the lead- 
ing cities of the Union, denounced arbitrary arrests and the 
suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, protested against Val- 
landigham's sentence, and called upon the President to recall 
their injured friend and protege. A month after Vallandigham 
was banished, the Democratic State Convention of Ohio met, 
and, by almost a unanimous vote, nominated him as their can- 
didate for governor, and Senator Pugh, his legal counsel, as 
their candidate for lieutenant governor. They also sent a com- 
mittee to "Washington to demand of the President the recall 
of their candidate. The letter which they bore Avas answered 
at length by the President ; and he gave the supporters of 
Mr. Vallandigham a very plain talk. He told them what he 
believed to be the facts touching Mr. Vallandigham's words 
and influence, in opposition to those means which the govern- 
ment deemed indispensable to its own preservation, and then 
said : " Your own attitude, therefore, encourages desertion, re- 



414 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

sistance to the draft, and the like, because it teaches those who 
incline to desert and to escape the draft, to believe it is your 
purpose to protect them." He told them, however, that the 
proceedings in Mr. Yallandigham's case were "for preven- 
tion, not for punishment — an injunction to stay an injury;" — 
and that the modification of General Burnside's order was 
made as a less disagreeable mode to Mr. Vallandigham him- 
self of securing the desired prevention. 

It is hardly to be doubted that Mr. Lincoln would never, 
of his own motion, have arrested the greatly over-rated sub- 
ject of these discussions. He had talked as badly in Wash- 
ington as he had in Ohio, and lost no opportunity to abuse 
the President himself; but Mr. Lincoln very severely let him 
alone. When, therefore, he clandestinely returned, a year 
afterwards, and fulminated his threats against the government, 
in case he should be arrested in any way except by officers of 
the civil tribunals, he was permitted to say what he pleased. 
The people of Ohio had already decided against him by a 
majority of one hundred thousand votes; and he had lost his 
poAver for harm, except where he might choose to bestow his 
friendship. 

To the resolutions passed by the Albany meeting of which 
Hon. Erastus Corning was president, Mr. Lincoln made an 
elaborate reply. This was his favorite field. He had got 
hold of a case to argue ,• and its importance, in his apprehen- 
sion, may be judged by the fact that he spent more time and 
exhausted more pains upon this paper than upon any other 
written during his administration, messages included. It was 
intended to be the full and exhaustive vindication of his policy, 
upon the subjects it covered, before the American people ; and 
the American people so regarded it. No headway could be 
made against it, and no serious and candid attempt was made 
to answer it. 

These pages will not give space to the entire document, or 
even a review of the argument ; but some of its illustrations 
may be cited as giving its drift and style. In arguing the 
necessity of the arrest of those who were known to be traitors, 



LIFE OP ABRAIIAJH LINCOLN. 415 

but who had committed no overt act of treason, he said: "Gen- 
eral John C. Breckinridge, General Robert E. Lee, General 
Joseph E. Johnston, General John B. Magruder, General 
William, B. Preston, General Simon B. Bnckner, and Com- 
modore Franklin Buchanan, now occupying the very highest 
places in the rebel war service, were all within the power of 
the government since the war began, and were; nearly as well 
known to be traitors then as now. Unquestionably, if we 
had seized and held them, the insurgent cause would be much 
weaker. But no one of them had committed any crime de- 
fined in the law. Every one of them, if arrested, would have 
been discharged on habeas corpus, were the writ allowed to 
operate. In view of these and similar cases, I think the time 
not unlikely to come when I shall be blamed for having made 
too few arrests, rather than too many." 

Certainly here was a case in point ; and it is hard to see 
why reasoning that applies so well to those men would not 
apply as well to those still in the power of the government, 
who had notoriously so opposed the war as to hinder that 
government from conquering the traitors named. Mr. Vallan- 
digham "was not arrested," he said, "because he was damag- 
ing the political prospects of the administration, or the per- 
sonal interests of the commanding general; but because he 
was damaging the army, upon the existence and vigor of 
which the life of he nation depends." Furthermore: "Must 
I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy, who deserts, while I must 
not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert ? 
I think that, in such a case, to silence the agitator and save 
the boy, is not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy." 

The Albany meeting had spoken to Mr. Lincoln as " dem- 
ocrats." To this aspect of the matter he paid his addresses. 
He would have preferred to meet them on the higher platform 
of "American citizens," at such a time; but, since he was de- 
nied this privilege, he comforted himself with the reflection 
that all democrats did not believe with them. General Burn- 
side, who arrested Mr. Vallandiffham, was a democrat. Judge 
Leavitt, who refused to release him on the writ of habeas corpus, 



416 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

was also a democrat who received his mantle from the hands 
of Jackson himself; and speaking of Jackson reminded him 
of an incident in point: "After the battle of New Orleans, 
and while the fact that the treaty of peace had been concluded 
was avcII known in the city, but before official knowledge of 
it had arrived, General Jackson still maintained martial or 
military law. Now that it could be said the war was over, 
the clamor against martial law, which had existed from the 
first, grew more furious. Among other things, a Mr. Loui- 
allier published a denunciatory newspaper article. General 
Jackson arrested him. "A lawyer by the name of Morel pro- 
cured the United States Judge Hall to issue a writ of habeas 
corpus to relieve Mr. Louiallier. General Jackson arrested 
both the lawyer and the Judge. A Mr. Hollander ventured 
to say of some part of the matter that it was a ' dirty trick.' 
General Jackson arrested him. "When the officer undertook 
to serve the writ of habeas corpus, General Jackson took it 
from him, and sent him away with a copy. Holding the 
Judge in custody a few days, the General sent him beyond 
the limits of his encampment, and set him at liberty, with an 
order to remain until the ratification of peace should be regu- 
larly announced, or until the British should have left the 
southern coast. A day or two more elapsed, the ratification 
of a treaty of peace was regularly announced, and the Judge 
and others were fully liberated. A few days more, and the 
Judge called General Jackson into court, and fined him one 
thousand dollars for having arrested him and the others named. 
The General paid the fine, and there the matter rested for 
nearly thirty years, when Congress refunded principal and 
interest." 

Mr. Lincoln could not avoid adding that Senator Douglas, 
then a member of the House, was a prominent advocate of 
this democratic measure; and remarking: "First, that we had 
the same constitution then as now; second, that we then had 
a case of invasion, and now we have a case of rebellion ; and, 
third, that the permanent right of the people to public discus- 
sion, the liberty of speech and of the press, the trial by jury, 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. -417 

I 

the law of evidence, and the habeas corpus, suffered no detri- 
ment whatever by that conduct of General Jackson, or its 
subsequent approval by the American Congress." 



To obviate an objection made to the course of the adminis- 
tration, in permitting the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
to be suspended at the pleasure of the heads of military de- 
partments, thus delegating the authority, Mr. Lincoln, by 
proclamation on the fifteenth day of September, suspended 
the writ throughout the United States. 

Under the enrollment act, passed March third, a draft of 
militia was ordered for July, and was effected without serious 
disturbance, except in a single instance, in the city of New 
York. Great efforts had been made by interested politicians, 
during the spring and summer, to make certain provisions of 
the act odious to the people, especially to the lower and 
more unreasoning classes. The clause exempting from con- 
scription on the payment of three hundred dollars, was rep- 
resented to be intended for the benefit of the rich ; and the 
bad passions of the mob were wrought upon in various ways. 
The first day of the draft in New York, July eleventh, though 
attended with some excitement, witnessed no outbreak or 
violent opposition: but the Sunday that intervened between 
that day and the resumption of the draft on the thirteenth, af- 
forded an opportunity for organization : and, when the fateful 
wheels started again, one of them was seized by a mob, and 
destroyed; and the building which contained it was fired. 
For four days thereafter, New York was under the reign of 
riot. The troops were all away, having been called upon to 
resist the invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania. During 
this fearful period, the most fiendish outrages were visited 
upon the harmless black population of the city, houses belong- 
ing to prominent supporters of the government were sacked 
and burned, and plunder became the one ruling passion of all 
the worst inhabitants of the city. Those who had led on the 
mob, as a demonstration against the draft, soon found that 
27 



418 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

they could not direct the whirlwind, and that the passions they 
had aroused were altogether beyond their control. Women 
and children of the lowest classes gave free rein to their thiev- 
ish impulses; and, after a single day of riot, the draft was for- 
gotten in the greed for spoil. The disgraceful proceedings 
were not stayed until the return of the regiments that had 
been sent away. 

The Governor of New York, friendly neither to the admin- 
istration nor to the draft, asked for a postponement of the 
measure of conscription until volunteering could be tried ; 
and he complained of certain inequalities of the government 
requisitions in certain districts of the state. Mr. Lincoln re- 
plied, temporarily yielding the point in relation to four dis- 
tricts, and promising a careful re-enrollment, but saying that 
the draft must be proceeded with. The Governor wished for 
delay, also, in order that the constitutionality of the draft 
law might be tried. Mr. Lincoln replied that he should be 
willing to facilitate the bringing of the law before the Supreme 
Court, but he could not consent to lose the time. " We are 
contending," said he, "with an enemy who, as I understand, 
drives every able-bodied man he can reach into his ranks, very 
much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen. No 
time is wasted, no argument is used. This produces an army 
which will soon turn upon our now victorious soldiers, already 
in the field, if they shall not be sustained by recruits as they 
should be. It produces an army with a rapidity not to be 
matched on oar side, if we first waste time to re-experiment 
with the volunteer system, already deemed by Congress, and 
palpably, in fact, so far exhausted as to be inadequate ; and 
then more time to obtain a court decision as to whether a law 
is constitutional which requires a part of those not now 
in the service to £0 to the aid of those already m it; and 
still more time to determine with absolute certainty that we 
get those who are to go in the precisely legal proportion to 
those who are not to go." The Governor was still in trouble 
about the inequality of the quotas in the districts, and regret- 
ted that the President would not suspend the draft. The 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 419 

President understood his duly, and did not misunderstand 
Governor Seymour; and the draft was resumed and peacefully 
consummated, through measures of protection instituted by 
the Avar department. 

The popularity of Mr. Lincoln and his administration had 
entirely recovered from whatever depressing influence the 
emancipation policy had occasioned, and from the effects of 
the Peninsular campaign. His determined pursuit of duty, 
whatever the consequences might be to himself, won him 
friends among his enemies. The spring elections of 18G3 
showed a reaction from those of the previous autumn, and the 
fall elections confirmed his growing popularity. The elections 
in New York were a direct and decided indorsement of the 
draft in that state, and, in the same degree, a condemnation of 
those who had opposed it. Ohio decided Mr. Vallandigham's 
case by giving a tremendous majority on the side of the o*ov- 
ernment. Pennsylvania re-elected Governor Curtin by an 
unexpected majority; and the same successes occurred in 
every state, with the single exception of New Jersey. To 
Mr. Lincoln, who watched the indications of the public feel- 
ing and opinion with constant anxiety, these events brought 
great relief and encouragement. The South had been watch- 
ing for outbreaks, and its northern friends had been proph- 
esying them. The South had been expecting the growth of 
a peace party, and its northern friends had endeavored to 
bring one into the field; but the fall elections of 1863 crushed 
the rebel expectations ; and the whole North was regarded by 
the traitors as bound to the fortunes of that horrible tyrant — 
that blood-thirsty boor — Abraham Lincoln. In the meantime, 
Mr. Lincoln had made great progress in the esteem of foreign 
governments and foreign peoples, of which he received abund- 
ant testimonials. 

Early in the year, the working men of Manchester, Eng- 
land, sent him a letter, to which he gave a grateful and cordial 
reply. They, although greatly suffering in consequence of 
the war, sent him their sympathy; and in his reply, he said 
to them: "It has been often and studiously represented that 



420 LIFE OF ABUAIIAM LINCOLN. 

the attempt to overthrow this government, which was Duilt 
upon the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it 
one which should rest exclusively upon the basis of human 
slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. Through 
the action of our disloyal citizens, the working men of Eu- 
rope have been subjected to severe trial, for the purpose of 
forcing their sanction to that attempt. Under these circum- 
stances, I cannot but regard your decisive utterances upon the 
question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism, which 
has not been surpassed in any age, or in any country. * * * I 
do not doubt that the sentiments you have expressed will be 
sustained by your great nation; and, on the other hand, I 
have no hesitation in assuring you that they will excite ad- 
miration, esteem, and the most reciprocal feelings of friendship 
among the American people." 

In a letter written August twenty-sixth, to James C. Conk- 
ling, in reply to an invitation to attend a mass meeting of 
"unconditional Union men," to be held at his old home in 
Springfield, Ilfinois, it is evident that Mr. Lincoln was hope- 
ful and confident of results. In this letter he treated again 
of the subject of emancipation; and handled the clamorer for 
peace, the enemies of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 
advocates of compromise, with most admirable skill. The 
closing paragraphs are peculiarly keen, clear and sparkling: 

" You say that you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem 
willing to fight for you; but no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively to 
save the Union. 1 issued the Proclamation on purpose to aid you in 
saving the Union. "Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance 
to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an apt 
time then for you to declare you will not fight to free negroes. I 
thought that, in your struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the 
negroes should cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the 
enemy in his resistance to you. Do you think differently? I thought 
that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much 
less for white soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does it appear other* 
wise to you? But negroes, like other people, act upon motives. "N hy 
should they do anything for us, if we will do nothing for them? If 
they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 421 

motive, oven the promise of freedom. And the promise, being made, 
must be kept. 

"The signs look better The Father of Waters again goes unvexcd 
to the sea. Thanks to the greal Northwest for it; nor yet wholly to 
them. Three hundred miles up they met New England, Empire, Key- 
stone, and Jersey, hewing their way right and left. The sunny South, 
too, in more colors than one, also lent a helping hand. On the spot, 
their part of the history was jotted down in black and white. The job 
was a great national one ; and let none be slighted who bore an honora- 
ble part in it. And while those who have cleared the great river may 
well be proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say that anything has 
been more bravely and well done than at Antietam, Murfreesboro, Get- 
tysburg, and on many fields of less note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web- 
feet be forgotten. At all the watery margins they have been present, 
not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also 
up the narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a little 
damp they have been and made their tracks. Thanks to all. For the 
great Republic — for the principle it bves by and keeps alive — for man's 
vast future — thanks to all. 

"Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, 
and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future 
time. It will then have been proved that among freemen there can be 
no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who 
take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And 
there will be some black men who can remember that with silent tongue, 
and clinched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have 
helped mankind on to this great consummation; while I fear there will 
be some white ones unable to forget that with malignant heart and de- 
ceitful speech they have striven to hinder it." 

The military events of the year were of great importance, 
and, on the whole, well calculated to give hope, not only to 
Mr. Lincoln, but to the loyal people of the whole country. 
After the battle of Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, the 
army of the Potomac did nothing for several months. Late 
in April — General Burnside having meantime been relieved, 
and General Hooker placed in command — a movement was 
made across the river, and the battle of Chancellorsville was 
fought, which resulted in the retreat of our army, and a loss 
of eighteen thousand men. It was a sad bernnnina; of the 
year's operations, and was followed by the invasion of Mary- 
land and Pennsylvania by the whole of General Lee's forces. 



422 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The invasion took place in June ; and it was accomplished so 
quickly, so easily, and by so great a force, that the whole 
country became terribly excited. The President issued a 
proclamation calling for one hundred thousand militia to assist 
in driving back the foe. The army under Hooker crossed the 
Potomac at about the same time with the army of Lee, and 
both entered Maryland together. Here General Hooker was 
relieved, and General Meade placed in command, who, finding 
the enemy advancing toward and into Pennsylvania, pushed 
forward with his army to dispute the movement. On the first 
of July, the battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania began ; and 
it raged with terrific energy for three days. It was one of 
the most brilliant and terrible battles of the war. On the 
fifth of July, the enemy, who had been terribly punished, and 
saw that his invasion was a failure, retreated, and was pursued 
by our weary forces back to the old position on the Rappa- 
hannock. At the close of the fighting on the third, it was 
evident that the enemy was whipped ; and the President an- 
nounced the fact on the fourth, by a dispatch sent over the 
whole country, stating that the news was such as to cover the 
army with the highest honor, and to promise a great success to 
the cause of the Union. With characteristic reverence, he 
closed by expressing his desire that on that day — the anniver- 
sary of the national independence — " He whose will, not ours, 
should ever be done, be everywhere remembered, and rever- 
enced with profoundest gratitude." Our losses in this battle, 
in killed, wounded and missing, amounted to twenty-three 
thousand men, while those of the enemy were much greater, 
leaving, indeed, fourteen thousand prisoners in our hands. 
The state of Pennsylvania, with considerate liberality, subse- 
quently purchased a piece of land adjoining the cemetery of 
the town, where much severe fighting took place, as a burial 
ground for the loyal dead of the great battle. This place was 
dedicated on the succeeding nineteenth of November, in the 
presence of Mr. Lincoln and his cabinet, Hon. Edward Ev- 
erett delivering the formal address of the occasion. The brief 
remarks of Mr. Lincoln, though brought into immediate com- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 423 

parison with the elaborate eloquence of the venerable Massa- 
chusetts orator, were very effective, and betrayed a degree of 
literary ability quite unexpected to those who had read only 
his formal state papers, lie said: 

■ Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this 
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the propo- 
sition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great 
civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and 
so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of 
that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final 
resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might 
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But 
in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 
hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled 
here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The 
world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here; but it can 
never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be 
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have 
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to 
the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we 
take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full 
measure of devotion ; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall 
not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new 
birth of freedom, and that the government of "the people, by the people, 
and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." 

Did Mr. Everett say more or better in all his pages than 
Mr. Lincoln said in these lines? Yet they were written after 
he left Washington, and during a brief interval of leisure. 

The Fourth of J uly was further rendered memorable by the 
surrender of the city of Vicksburg — the stronghold of the 
Mississippi River — by General Pemberton to General Grant, 
with all his defenses and his army of thirty thousand men. 
After various unsuccessful operations, beginning with the year, 
contemplating the capture of this city, General Grant ran by 
the batteries with his transports, and landed far down the river, 
to attempt the approach of the city from the rear. Fighting all 
the way, and winning every battle, he reached Jackson, and 
then advanced westward, directly upon the doomed town. 
General Pemberton, in the endeavor to dispute his progress, 
lost at Baker's Creek four thousand men and twenty-nine 



424 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

pieces of artillery. On the banks of the Big Black, the en- 
emy gave battle again, and was again defeated, with a loss of 
nearly three thousand men, and seventeen pieces of artillery. 
Then Pemberton fell back behind his defenses, which he did 
not leave till, on the national anniversary, he and his army 
marched forth as prisoners of war, leaving behind them more 
than two hundred cannon, and seventy thousand stand of 
small-arms. Four days later, Port Hudson, which had been 
closely besieged by an army advancing from the south, under 
General Banks, surrendered with seven thousand prisoners 
and fifty cannon. 

Thus was the confederacy cut in twain ; and from that hour 
its cause was doomed. Not a life was lost afterwards that 
was not lost in the destruction and defense of a hopeless 
cause. "The Father of Waters," wrote Mr. Lincoln, in glad 
and poetic mood, to Mr. Conkling, " again goes un vexed to ■ 
the sea." It was a great event, and one which might well 
fill the heart of the President with exultation. 

These victories gave great encouragement to the loyal peo- 
ple of the country; and, from the day of their occurrence, 
there was but little doubt among them of the final triumph 
of the national cause. In Washington, there were great rejoic- 
ings; and of course there was a popular call upon Mr. Lin- 
coln, who, in response to a serenade, came out, and made a 
brief speech. These calls were not occasions in which he 
delighted, and it was honest and characteristic for him to say, 
in beginning: "I am very glad indeed to see you to-night, 
and yet I will not say I thank you for this call ; but I do most 
sincerely thank Almighty God for the occasion on which you 
have called." 

Another very characteristic utterance of Mr. Lincoln, in 
connection with these events, was a letter written to General 
Grant, July thirteenth, in which he took occasion to acknowl- 
edge that results had confirmed the General's judgment rather 
than his own : 

"My Bear General: I do not remember that you and I ever met per- 
sonally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 425 

inestimable service you have done the country. I write to say a word 
further. When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought 
you should do what you finally did— march the troops across the neck, 
run the batteries with the transports, and thus go below; and I never 
had any faith, except a general hope that you knew better than I, that 
the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like could succeed. When you got 
below, and took Tort Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you 
should go down the river and join General Banks; and when you turned 
northward, cast of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I wish 
now to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right and I 
was wrong." 

The President's praise of General Grant was the voice of 
the country. The capture of Vicksburg, with its prelimi- 
nary battles, was the work of a great general, and one of the 
most brilliant feats in the history of war. The country felt 
that it had one man, at least, who was not only thoroughly in 
earnest, but who was the master of his profession. 

The operations in the west were pursued with various for- 
tunes during the year; but with h'nal results wholly in our 
favor. On the fifth of January, a battle occurred at Mur- 
freesboro, which ended in the federal occupation of the place, 
and the falling back of the enemy to Tullahoma, where he 
entrenched himself. On the twenty-fifth of June, General 
Rosecrans advanced, and made an attack, driving" Brao-o- and 
his army back in confusion. Pursuit was made as far as 
practicable, and Bragg kept up his retreat until he reached 
Chattanooga. Eosecrans came up with him August twenty- 
first, and then Bragg retired again, but, after receiving rein- 
forcements, turned, and, on September nineteenth, made an 
attack upon our army. The engagement was a desperate 
one, inflicting severe losses upon the federal forces; but the 
rebels gained no permanent advantages. Burnside at Knoxville 
had been ordered to join Rosecrans, but had failed to do so, 
and, after the battle, Longstreet's corps of the rebel army was 
sent against him, while the enemy held his main force at or 
near Chattanooga. On the twenty-fifth of November, Gen- 
eral Grant, who, having finished up his Vicksburg job, had 
assumed command, attacked Bragg, and utterly routed him, 



426 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

crowding- him back into Georgia. Then Grant paid his re- 
spects to Long-street, who was besieging Knoxvillc, and that 
General made safe his retreat into Virginia. 

Mr. Lincoln, who had prayed for all these successes, re- 
ferred them directly and at once to the favor of God. His 
announcement of the federal success at Gettysburg was ac- 
companied by a call upon the people to remember and rever- 
ence Him with profoundest gratitude. After the fall of 
Vicksburg, he publicly thanked Almighty God for the event. 
On the fifteenth of July, he issued a proclamation, setting 
apart the sixth day of August to be observed as a day for 
national thanksgiving, praise and prayer: inviting the people 
to "render the homage due to the Divine Majesty, for the 
wonderful things he has done in the nation's behalf: and in- 
voke the influences of his Holy Spirit to subdue the anger 
which has produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel 
rebellion ; to change the hearts of the insurgents ; to guide 
the counsels of the government with wisdom adequate to so 
great a national emergency ; and to visit with tender care and 
consolation, throughout the length and breadth of our land, 
all those who, through the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, 
battles and sieges, have been brought to suffer in mind, body, 
or estate ; and, finally, to lead tli2 whole nation through paths 
of repentance and submission to the Divine Will, back to the 
perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace." On the 
third of October he issued another proclamation of thanks- 
giving, setting apart the last Thursday of November as the 
day to be observed. The spirit of tender piety which this 
document breathed in every part, could only have come from 
a heart g ;ureharged with that spirit. Still again, having heard 
of the retreat of the insurgent forces from East Tennessee, he 
issued a dispatch on the seventh of December, recommending 
all loyal people, on the receipt of the information, to assemble 
at their places of worship, "and render special homage and 
gratitude to Almighty God for this great advancement of the 
national cause." 

One of the most vexatious events of the year, to Mr. Lin- 



LIFE OF ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 427 

coin, was the quarrel among his friends in Missouri, dating as 
far back as the removal of General Fremont, and not frowned 
upon by that General at its inception. An order of General 
Halleck, who succeeded General Hunter in Missouri, exclud- 
ing fugitive slaves from his lines, though issued only Cur mili- 
tary reasons, helped on the discord. Then came discussions 
and action concerning emancipation, the parties dividing on 
the issue of gradual or immediate emancipation ; and this was 
followed, or accompanied, by disagreement between the com- 
mander of the federal forces and Governor Gamble, controlling 
the state troops, raised originally as auxiliary to the govern- 
ment. General Curtis, who was in command of the depart- 
ment, was removed because he and Governor Gamble could 
not agree, and not because he had done any wrong; and 
General Schofield was put in his place. This offended Gov- 
ernor Gamble's enemies, and they remonstrated. Mr. Lincoln, 
in a note written at this time, said: "It is very painful to me 
that you, in Missouri, cannot or will not settle your factional 
quarrel among yourselves. I have been tormented with it 
beyond endurance for a month, by both sides. Neither side 
pays the least respect to my appeals to your reason." 

General Fremont's friends wanted him recalled, and desired 
him to be military governor, setting Governor Gamble aside. 
Deputations, committees, and independent partisans visited 
Washington to "torment" the President still more. Each 
carried back a report, and made the most of it, to feed the 
quarrel. During the summer of 18G3, the public feeling came 
up to fever heat. Gradual emancipationists were denounced 
as traitors by the radical emancipation party, which claimed 
to represent the only loyal elements of the state; and, of 
course, gradual emancipationists retorted the charge, and as- 
sumed the claim. On the fifth of October, the President 
wrote a lon<2; letter, reviewing the whole case, in his own 
frank and lucid way. He also sent a letter of instruction to 
General Schofield, in which he directed him so to use his 
power as " to compel the excited people there to let one an- 
other alone." Neither the letter nor the instructions produced 



428 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the slightest effect in quieting the political agitation, or soften- 
in"- the personal feeling which accompanied it. The depart- 
ment was subsequently placed under the command of General 
Kosccrans ; and the quarrel itself died out, or ceased to attract 
public and presidential attention. In the President's letter to 
General Schofield, at the time of his appointment, he said to 
him : " If both factions or neither abuse you, you will proba- 
bly be about right. Beware of being assailed by one and 
praised by the other." Judged by his own rule in this case, 
the President was as nearly right as he could be, for both sides 
abused him thoroughly. Let it be said, however, to their 
credit, that, at the succeeding presidential election, both sup- 
ported him, and contributed to his triumph. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The pen has been so busy with the record of the great na- 
tional events with which Mr. Lincoln was directly concerned, 
that no space has been found for entering the White House, 
and witnessing the kind of life that was lived there. The 
closing paragraphs of the last chapter will give an intimation of 
some of the perplexities that attended Mr. Lincoln's daily ex- 
perience. More than any of his predecessors was he regarded 
as the father of his people. He was so accessible that they 
came to him with all their troubles, from the representatives 
of the factions in Missouri, to the old woman who applied to 
him to have a sum of money reserved from the wages of a 
clerk in one of the departments, that he might pay her bill 
for board. Every man seemed to think that Mr. Lincoln 
could settle his little difficulty, or provide for his little want, 
whatever it might be. It was the story of his younger life 
re-enacted. He had always been a reconciler of difficulties 
between men ; and he remarked, while in the presidential chair, 
that it seemed as if he was regarded as a police justice, before 
whom all the petty troubles of men were brought for ad- 
justment. 

In one matter — and that an important one — he differed from 
all who had preceded him in his office. Such an affair as a 
genuine cabinet consultation hardly occurred during his ad- 
ministration. His heads of departments were heads of de- 
partments indeed. Pie intended that they should do the work 
of their special office, and that they should be held responsible 



430 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

for it. The affairs of state were managed by Mr. Seward, 
and not by Mr. Lincoln. The Treasury was almost as much 
in the hands of Mr. Chase, during his occupation of office, as 
if lie were irresponsible to the head of the government. The 
same fact held concerning all the other secretaries. He was 
more intimate with the Secretary of War, probably, than 
with any other member of the cabinet, because operations in 
the field were the leading affairs of interest and importance ; 
and it is probable, also, that his influence was more felt in the 
war office than in any other of the departments. Mr. Chase 
has said that he 'never attended a meeting of the cabinet 
without taking with him the figures that showed the exact 
condition of the Treasury at the time, and that, during the 
whole of his official life, he was not once called upon to show 
these figures. Mr. Lincoln contented himself with such 
knowledge as he gained in a general way concerning the af- 
fairs entrusted to him. The tenacity with which he clung to 
his chosen advisers and official family, throughout all the at- 
tempts of politicians and the public to unseat them, was re- 
markable; and illustrated not only the faithfulness of his 
friendship but the inflcxibleness of his will. 

If any action was ever taken by one of his secretaries that 
seemed to him ill-advised, he did not hesitate to interfere ; but, 
sitting in his place, and performing what seemed to him to be 
his special duties, he intended that his associates in the gov- 
ernment should sit in their places, and perform their duties ; 
and he left them free to win such honor as they could, by the 
administration of the affairs of their respective departments. 

The first three years of the Avar, with all their excitements, 
responsibilities and anxieties, produced a powerful effect upon 
his physical constitution. He entered the THiite House, a 
healthy man, with a frame of iron ; and, without indulgence 
in a single debilitating vice, he became a feeble man, weary 
and worn beyond the reach of rest. The tired feeling very 
rarely left him. His relief was in story-telling, in books of 
humor, in theatrical representations, and in music. A lady 
who was, for a time, a member of his family, related to the 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 431 

writer an incident touching hia love of music and its effect 
upon him. One evening he was prevailed upon to attend the 
opera. He was very tired, and quite inclined to remain at 
home; but, at the close of the evening's entertainment, he 
declared himself so much rested that he felt as if he could go 
home and work a month. Simple heart-songs pleased him, 
however, much more than the elaborate music of the opera. 
The poetry of Burns, and the class of verse to which it be- 
longed, were subjects of his special admiration; and the music 
that was their fitting expression was to him the most delight- 
ful of all. 

With the soldiers who were fighting the battles of the 
country, he had the deepest sympathy. Whenever he was 
congratulated upon a success in the field, he never failed to 
allude gratefully to the noble men who had won it. The trials 
of these men — their sacrifices of comfort and health, of limb 
and life — touched him with a sympathy that really sapped the 
foundations of his constitution. They were constantly in his 
thoughts ; and not a battle was fought to whose sacrifices his 
own vitality did not contribute. He admired the fighting man, 
and looked upon him as, in one sense, his superior. Although 
he did not plead guilty to the weakness of moral cowardice, 
he felt that the battle-field was a fearful place, from which, 
unaided by its special inspirations, he should run. Indeed, 
Mr. Lincoln did not give himself credit for the physical 
courage which he really possessed, though he had probably 
grown timid with his failing strength. 

This sympathy with the soldiers he manifested in many 
ways, and in none more than in his treatment of their offenses 
against military law. In a letter to the author, a personal 
friend of the President says: "I called on him one day in the 
early part of the war. He had just written a pardon for a 
young man who had been sentenced to be shot, for sleeping 
at his post, as a sentinel. He remarked as he read it to me : 
'I could not think of going into eternity with the blood of 
the poor young man on my skirts.' Then he added: 'It is 
not to be wondered at that a boy, raised on a farm, probably 



432 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

in the habit of going to bed at dark, should, when required 
to watch, fall asleep ; and I cannot consent to shoot him for 
such an act.' " This story, with its moral, is made complete 
by Rev. Newman Hall of London, who, in a sermon preached 
after and upon Mr. Lincoln's death, says that the dead body 
of this youth was found among the slain on the field of Fred- 
ericksburg, wearing next his heart a photograph of his pre- 
server, beneath which the grateful fellow had written, " God 
bless President Lincoln!" From the same sermon, another 
anecdote is gleaned, of a similar character, which is evidently 
authentic. An officer of the army, in conversation with the 
preacher, said : " The first week of my command, there were 
twenty-four deserters sentenced by court martial to be shot , 
and the warrants for their execution were sent to the Presi- 
dent to be signed. He refused. I went to Washington, and 
had an interview. I said: 'Mr. President, unless these men 
are made an example of, the army itself is in danger. Mercy 
to the few is cruelty to the many.' He replied : 'Mr. General, 
there are already too many weeping widows in the United 
States. For God's sake, do n't ask me to add to the number, 
for I won't do it.' " 

"Whole chapters might be occupied by the record of such 
incidents as these. The woe that the war brought upon the 
people kept his sympathetic heart always bleeding. One of 
the last acts of his official life was the granting of a pardon for 
a military offense. A friend from Illinois called to plead for 
the life of a neighbor — a soldier who was on his way with his 
regiment through "Washington, and, falling out of the ranks, 
entered a drinking saloon, was overcome with liquor, and 
failed to join his regiment before it left the city. He was 
arrested for desertion, and sentenced* to be shot. The soldier's 
friend found Mr. Lincoln with a table before him literally 
covered Avith documents, which were all to be signed by him. 
There was not room enough on the table to hold the paper 
for a pardon. Mr. Lincoln heard the explanation of the case, 
and remarked: "Well, I think the boy can do us more good 
above ground than under ground;" and then he proceeded to 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 433 

another tabic to write his pardon. Afterwards, laughingly 
regarding the table from which llu> mass of papers had driven 
him, he said: "By the way, do you know how the Patago- 
nians eat oysters? They open them, and throw the shells out 
of the window, till the pile gets higher than the house, and 
then they move! " He could not omit his "little story," even 
in a case of life and death. 

There never lived a man more considerate of human weak- 
ness than Abraham Lincoln. lie always found 80 many apol- 
ogies for the sins of others that he could cherish no resentments 
against them, even when those sins were maliciously committed 
against himself. When his friends went to him with the re- 
marks of ill-natured and inimical persons, he preferred not to 
have them repeated, and turned off his indignant informers 
with a story, or the remark: "I guess we won't talk about 
that now." He never read the public abuse of himself in 
the newspapers ; and of one of the most virulent attacks upon 
him he simply remarked that it was "ill-timed." Of one of 
his bitter political enemies, he said: "I've been told that in- 
sanity is hereditary in his family, and I think we will admit 
the plea in his case." Charity, pity, mercy, sympathy — these 
were virtues which reigned in the White House during Mr. 
Lincoln's occupation of it. 

Yet Mr. Lincoln could be severe. Toward crimes result- 
ing from sudden anger, or untoward circumstances and sharp 
temptations, — the long catalogue of vices growing out of hu- 
man weakness, — toward these, he was always lenient ; but to- 
ward a cool, calculating crime against the race, or any member 
of it, from ambitious or mercenary motives, he was severe. 
The systematic, heartless oppression of one man by another 
man, always aroused his indignation to the highest pitch. An 
incident occurred soon after his inauguration which forcibly 
illustrates this point. Hon. John B. Alley of Lynn, Massa- 
chusetts, was made the bearer to the President of a petition 
for pardon, by a person confined in the Newburyport jail for 
being engaged in the slave-trade. He had been sentenced to 
five years' imprisonment, and the payment of a fine of one 
2S 



434 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

thousand dollars. The petition was accompanied by a letter 
to Mr. Alley, in which the prisoner acknowledged his guilt 
and the justice of his sentence. He was very penitent, — at 
least, on paper, — and had received the full measure of his 
punishment, so far as it related to the term of his imprison- 
ment; but he was still held because he could not pay his fine. 
Mr. Alley read the letter to the President, who was much 
moved by its pathetic appeals ; and when he had himself read 
the petition, he looked up, and said: "My friend, that is a 
very touching appeal to our feelings. You know my weak- 
ness is to be, if possible, too easily moved by appeals for mercy , 
and, if this man were guilty of the foulest murder that the 
arm of man could perpetrate, I might forgive him on such an 
appeal ; but the man who could go to Africa, and rob her of 
her children, and sell them into interminable bondage, with 
no other motive than that which is furnished by dollars and 
cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer, 
that he can never receive pardon at my hands. No! He 
may rot in jail before he shall have liberty by any act of mine." 
A sudden crime, committed under strong temptation, was ve- 
nial in his eyes, on evidence of repentance ; but the calculating, 
mercenary crime of man-stealing and man-selling, with all the 
cruelties that are essential accompaniments of the business, 
could win from him, as an officer of the people, no pardon. 

Two ladies, wives of rebel officers imprisoned on Johnson's 
Island, applied for their release, with great importunity, one 
of them urging that her husband was a very religious man. 
As he granted their request, he said to the lady who had 
testified to her husband's religion: "You say your husband 
is a religious man: tell him, when you meet him, that I say I 
am not much of a judge of religion ; but that, in my opinion, 
the religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their gov- 
ernment, because, as they think, that government does not 
sufficiently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of 
other men's faces, is not the sort of religion upon which men 
can get to heaven." 

Certainly Mr. Lincoln's religion was very different from 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 435 

this. It was one which sympathized with all human sorrow ; 
which lifted, so far as it had the power, the burden from the 
oppressed ; which let the prisoner go free ; and which called 
daily for supplies of strength and wisdom from the divine 
fountains. He grew more religious with every passing year 
of his official life. The tender piety that breathed in some 
of his later state papers is unexampled in any of the utter- 
ances of his predecessors. In all the great emergencies of 
his closing years, his reliance upon divine guidance and assist- 
ance was often extremely touching. "I have been driven 
many times to my knees," he once remarked, "by the over- 
whelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My 
own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for 
that day." On another occasion, when told that he was daily 
remembered in the prayers of those who prayed, he said that he 
had been a good deal helped by the thought ; and then he added 
with much solemnity: "I should be the most presumptuous 
blockhead upon this footstool, if I for one day thought that 
I could discharge the duties which have come upon me since I 
came into this place, without the aid and enlightenment of One 
who is wiser and stronger than all others." He felt, he said, 
that he should leave Washington a better man if not a wiser, 
from having learned what a very poor sort of man he was. 
He always remained shy in the exposure of his religious ex- 
periences, but those around him caught golden glimpses of a 
beautiful Christian character. With failing strength and 
constant weariness, the even temper of the man sometimes 
gave way, while his frequent experience of the faithlessness 
and cupidity of men made him at last distrustful of those 
who approached him. 

In February, 1862, Mr. Lincoln was visited by severe af- 
fliction in the death of his beautiful son Willie, and the ex- 
treme sickness of Thomas, familiarly called "Tad." This was 
a new burden ; and the visitation which, in his firm faith in 
Providence, he regarded as providential, was also inexplicable. 
Why should he, with so many burdens upon him, and with 
such necessity for solace in his home and his affections, be 



436 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

brought into so tender a trial? It was to him a trial of faith, 
indeed. A Christian lady of Massachusetts, who was officia- 
ting as nurse in one of the hospitals, came in to attend the sick 
children. She reports that Mr. Lincoln watched with her 
about the bedside of the sick ones, and that he often walked 
the room, saying sadly : " This is the hardest trial of my life ; 
why is it? Why is it?" In the course of conversations 
with her, he questioned her concerning her situation. She 
told him she was a widow, and that her husband and two 
children were in Heaven ; and added that she saw the hand 
of God in it all, and that she had never loved him so much 
before as she had since her affliction. "How is that brought 
about?" inquired Mr. Lincoln. " Simply by trusting in God, 
and feeling that he does all things well," she replied. " Did 
you submit fully under the first loss?" he asked. "No," she 
answered, "not wholly; but, as blow came upon blow, and 
all was taken, I could and did submit, and was very happy." 
He responded: "I am glad to hear you say that. Your ex- 
perience will help me to bear my afflictions." 

On being assured that many Christians were praying for 
him on the morning of the funeral, he wiped away the tears 
that sprang in his eyes, and said : " I am glad to hear that. 
I want them to pray for me. I need their prayers." As he 
was going out to the burial, the good lady expressed her sym- 
pathy with him. He thanked her gently, and said: "I will 
try to go to God with my sorrows." A few days afterward, 
she asked him if he could trust God. He replied : " I think 
I can, and I will try. I wish I had that childlike faith you 
speak of, and I trust He will give it to me." And then he 
spoke of his mother, whom so many years before he had com- 
mitted to the dust among the wilds of Indiana. In this 
hour of his great trial, the memory of her who had held him 
upon her bosom, and soothed his childish griefs, came back to 
him with tenderest recollections. " I remember her prayers," 
said he, "and they have always followed me. They have 
clung to me all my life." 

This lady was with the President on subsequent occasions. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 437 

After the second defeat at Bull Run, lie appeared very much 
distressed about the number of killed and wounded, and said: 
"I have done the best I could. I have asked God to guide 
me, and now I must leave the event with him." On another 
occasion, having been made acquainted with the fact that a 
great battle was in progress, at a distant but important point, 
he came into the room where the lady was engaged in nursing 
a member of the family, looking worn and haggard, and say- 
ing that he was so anxious that he could eat nothing. The 
possibility of defeat depressed him greatly ; but the lady told 
him he must trust, and that he could at least pray. "Yes," 
said he, and taking up a Bible, he started for his room. Could 
all the people of the nation have overheard the earnest peti- 
tion that went up from that inner chamber, as it reached the 
ears of the nurse, they would have fallen upon their knees 
with tearful and reverential sympathy. At one o'clock in the 
afternoon, a telegram reached him announcing a Union vic- 
tory ; and then he came directly to the room, his face beaming 
with joy, saying: "Good news! Good news! The victory is 
ours, and God is good." "Nothing like prayer," suggested 
the pious lady, who traced a direct connection between the 
event and the prayer which preceded it." " Yes there is," he 
replied — "praise: — prayer and praise." The good lady who 
communicates these incidents closes them with the words: 
"I do believe he was a true Christian, though he had very 
little confidence in himself." 

Mr. Lincoln always manifested a strong interest in the pe- 
culiar work of the Christian Commission in the army, and at- 
tended the important meetings of that body at Washington. 
His official and personal approval of the plan of this charity 
was one of the greatest encouragements of those engaged in 
the work. In the early part of 1864, a meeting of the com- 
mission was held, at which Mr. Lincoln was a deeply inter- 
ested spectator. He was particularly moved on this occasion 
by the remarks of Chaplain McCabe, just released from Libby 
prison, at Richmond, who described, in a graphic manner, the 
scene among the prisoners on the reception of the news of the 



438 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

national victory at Gettysburg, as they took up Mrs. Howe's 
spirited lyric, beginning with the line, 

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, 

and made the prison walls rock with the melody. The Chap- 
lain sang it to the meeting, and Mr. Lincoln requested its 
repetition. That was a song that he could appreciate ; and it 
stirred him like a trumpet. 

At another of these meetings, he was greatly interested and 
amused by a story told by General Fisk of Missouri. The 
General had begun his military life as a Colonel ; and, when 
he raised his regiment in Missouri, he proposed to his men 
that he should do all the swearing of the regiment. They as- 
sented ; and for months no instance was known of the violation 
of the promise. The Colonel had a teamster named John 
Todd, who, as roads were not always the best, had some diffi- 
culty in commanding his temper and his tongue. John hap- 
pened to be driving a mule-team through a series of mud- 
holes a little worse than usual, when, unable to restrain him- 
self any longer, he burst forth into a volley of energetic oaths. 
The Colonel took notice of the oiFense, and brought John to 
an account. "John," said he, "didn't you promise to let me 
do all the swearing of the regiment?" "Yes, I did, Col- 
onel," he replied, "but the fact was the swearing had to be 
done then, or not at all, and you were n't there to do it." 

Mr. Lincoln enjoyed this story quite as much as he did the 
singing of the previous occasion, and gave himself up to 
laughter the most boisterous. The next morning, General 
Fisk attended the reception at the White House ; and saw, 
waiting in the ante-room, a poor old man from Tennessee. 
Sitting down beside him, he inquired his errand ; and learned 
that he had been waiting three or four days to get an audi- 
ence, and that on his seeing Mr. Lincoln probably depended 
the life of his son, who was under sentence of death for some 
military offense. General Fisk wrote his case in outline on a 
card, and sent it in, with a special request that the President 
would see the man. In a moment, the order came ; and past 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 439 

senators, governors and generals, waiting' impatiently, the old 
man went into the President's presence. He showed Mr. 
Lincoln his papers ; and he, on taking them, said he would look 
into the case, and give him the result on the following day. 
The old man, in an agony of apprehension, looked up into the 
President's sympathetic face, and actually cried out: "To- 
morrow may be too late ! My son is under sentence of death ! 
The decision ought to be made now!" and the streaming 
tears told how much he was moved. " Come," said Mr. Lin- 
coln, "wait a bit, and I'll tell you a story;" and then he told 
the old man General Fisk's story about the swearing driver ; 
and, as he told it, the old man forgot his boy, and both the 
President and his listener had a hearty laugh together at its 
conclusion. Then he wrote a few words which the old man 
read, and in which he found new occasion for tears ; but the 
tears were tears of joy, for the words saved the life of his son. 
Only a few months before Mr. Lincoln died, he was waited 
upon at the White House by about two hundred members of 
the commission, who had been holding their annual meeting. 
The chairman of the commission, George H. Stuart, addressed 
a few words to Mr. Lincoln, speaking of the debt which the 
country owed him. "My friends," said Mr. Lincoln in reply, 
" you owe me no gratitude for what I have done : and I — " 
and here he hesitated, and the long arm came through the 
air awkwardly, as if he might be misunderstood in what he 
was going to say, — "and I, I may say, owe you no gratitude 
for what you have done ; just as, in a sense, we owe no grati- 
tude to the men who have fought our battles for us. I trust 
that this has all been for us a work of duty;" and at the 
mention of that word, the homely, sad face was irradiated 
with the light of a divine emotion. Looking around for en- 
• couragement into the faces of the eager group, he then pro- 
ceeded in the simplest words to say that all gratitude was due 
to the Great Giver of all good. At the close of his remarks, 
Mr. Stuart, who cared as little for precedent as Mr. Lincoln 
himself, asked him if he had any objection, then and there, to 
a word of prayer. Quietly, but very cordially, as if he were 






440 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

grateful for the suggestion, he assented; and Bishop Janes 
offered In the East Room a brief and fervent petition. It 
was a memorable scene, which must always be reverted to 
with interest by every Christian patriot. 

On another occasion, when a number of the members of 
the commission were holding an interview with the President, 
Rev. J. T. Duryea of New York referred to the trust that 
they were encouraged to repose in the Providence of God, 
and to the fact that appeal was so constantly made to it in the 
prayers of Christian people that even children were taught to 
pray for the President in their simple morning and evening 
petitions. " If it were not for my firm belief in an over-rul- 
ing Providence," responded Mr. Lincoln, "it would be diffi- 
cult for me, in the midst of such complications of affairs, to 
keep my reason on its seat. But I am confident that the Al- 
mighty has his plans, and will work them out ; and, whether 
we see it or not, they will be the wisest and best for us. I 
have always taken counsel of him, and referred to him my 
plans, and have never adopted a course of proceeding without 
being assured, as far as I could be, of his approbation. To 
be sure, he has not conformed to my desires, or else Ave should 
have been out of our trouble long ago. On the other hand, 
his will does not seem to agree with the wish of our enemy 
over there (pointing across the Potomac). He stands the 
judge between us, and we ought to be willing to accept his 
decisions. We have reason to anticipate that it will be fa- 
vorable to us, for our cause is right." It was during this in- 
terview that the fact was privately communicated to a mem- 
ber of the commission, that Mr. Lincoln was in the habit of 
spending an early hour each day in prayer. 

It was during this interview, also, that, on some allusion 
ing made to the unfriendly personal criticisms of the press, 
he said : " It has been asserted that we are conducting the 
present administration in the interest of a party, to secure a 
re-election. It is said that appointments in the army are made 
with this view, and that the removals are intended to put 
promising rivals out of the way. Now, if any man shows 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 441 

liimself to be able to save the country, he shall have my hearty 
support. If he wants to be president, he ought to be, and I 
•will help him. The charge is absurd. What matters it who 

is chosen the next president, if there is to be no next presi- 
dency? What matters it who is appointed pilot for the next 
voyage, if the ship is going down this voyage?" When al- 
lusion was made to the carping spirit of some of the professed 
friends of the government, Avho, distinguishing between the 
administration and the government, condemned the former 
while pretending to defend the latter, he said: "There is an 
important sense in which the government is distinct from the 
administration. One is perpetual, the other is temporary and 
changeable. A man may be loyal to his government, and yet 
oppose the peculiar principles and methods of the administra- 
tion. I should regret to see the day in which the people should 
cease to express intelligent, honest, generous criticism upon 
the policy of their rulers. It is true, however, that, in time of 
great peril, the distinction ought not to be so strongly urged ; 
for then criticism may be regarded by the enemy as opposition, 
and may weaken the wisest and best efforts for the public 
safety. If there ever was such a time, it seems to me it is 
now." 

An illustration of Mr. Lincoln's interest in the efforts of 
religious men, is found in his treatment of a case brouoht be- 
fore him by Rev. Mr. Duryea, whose name has already been 
mentioned. Colonel Loomis, commandant at Fort Columbus, 
on Governor's Island, was to be removed because he had 
passed the legal limit of age for active service. His religious 
influence was so powerful that the Chaplain of the post ap- 
pealed to Mr. Duryea to use his influence for the good officer's 
retention in the service. Accordingly, appeal was made to 
the President for that object, purely on religious grounds. 
"What does Mr. Duryea know of military matters?" in- 
quired Mr. Lincoln, with a smile, of the bearer of his petition. 
"Nothing," replied the gentleman; "and he makes no request 
on military considerations. The record of Colonel Loomis for 
fifty years, in the War Department, will furnish these. He 



X 



442 LIFE OF ABRAIIAM LINCOLN. 

asks simply to retain the influence of a man whose Christian 
character is pure and consistent, who sustains religious exer- 
cises at the fort, leads a weekly prayer-meeting, and teaches 
a Bible class in the Sabbath School." Mr. Lincoln replied: 
"That is his highest possible recommendation. Take this pe- 
tition to the Secretary of War, with my approval." The re- 
sult was the retention of Colonel Loomis at his post, until his 
services were needed in important court-martial bvisiness. 

Mr. Lincoln's habits at the White House were as simple as 
they were at his old home in Illinois. He never alluded to 
himself as "President," or as occupying "the Presidency." 
His office, he always designated as "this place." "Call me 
Lincoln," said he to a friend, — "Mr. President" had become 
so very tiresome to him. "If you see a newsboy down the 
street, send him up this way," said he to a passenger, as he 
stood waiting for the morning news at his gate. Friends 
cautioned him against exposing himself so openly in the midst 
of enemies ; but he never heeded them. He frequently walked 
the streets at night, entirely unprotected ; and he felt any check 
upon his free movements as a great annoyance. He delighted 
to see his familiar western friends ; and he gave them always a 
cordial welcome. He met them on the old footing, and fell 
at once into the accustomed habits of talk and story-telling. 
An old acquaintance, with his wife, visited Washington. Mr. 
and Mrs. Lincoln proposed to these friends a ride in the presi- 
dential carriage. It should be stated, in advance, that the 
two men had probably never seen each other with gloves on 
in their lives, unless when they were used as protection from 
the cold. The question of each — Mr. Lincoln at the White 
House, and his friend at the hotel — was, whether he should 
wear gloves. Of course, the ladies urged gloves; but Mr. 
Lincoln only put his in his pocket, to be used or not, accord- 
ing to circumstances. When the presidential party arrived 
at the hotel, to take in their friends, they found the gentleman, 
overcome by his wife's persuasions, very handsomely gloved. 
The moment he took his seat, he began to draw off the cling- 
ing kids, while Mr. Lincoln began to draw his on. " No ! no ! 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 443 

no!" protested his friend, tugging at his gloves; "It is none 
of my doings : put up your gloves, Mr. Lincoln." So the 
two old friends were on even and easy terms, and had their 
ride after their old fashion. 

Let us look a little deeper into this life in the White House. 
The writer has before him a private letter written by a lady 
of great intelligence and the keenest powers of observation, 
from which he has the liberty to draw some most interesting 
materials, illustrative of Mr. Lincoln's mode of dealing with 
men and women, and with the questions which were presented 
to him for decision. They will illustrate as well his weak- 
ness as his strength ; and show, better than any direct state- 
ment, how the duties of his position had worn upon his nerves 
and his temper. The lady was the widow of one who had 
died while serving the soldiers of the state of which he was 
the Governor ; and she had taken up his work of charity, and 
pursued it from the time of his death. 

The lady says she was received by Mr. Lincoln after a 
brief delay. He was alone, in a medium-sized, office-like 
room, with no elegance around him, and no elegance in him. 
He was plainly clad in a suit of black, that fitted him poorly ; 
and was sitting in a folded-up sort of way, in his arm-chair. 
At his side stood a high writing-desk and table combined; 
under his feet was a simple straw matting ; and around him 
were sofas and chairs, covered with green worsted. Nothing 
more unpretending could be imagined. As she entered, his 
head was bent forward, his chin resting on his breast, and his 
hand holding the letter she had sent in. He made a feint 
of risino- ; and, looking out from under his eyebrows, said 

inquiringly : " Mrs. ? " Hastening forward, she replied : 

"Yes, and I am very glad to see you, Mr. Lincoln." He 
took her hand, and "hoped she was well," but gave no smile 
of welcome. She had come on business which interfered 
with his policy and plans; and she anxiously read his face, 
full of its lines of care and thought, and almost stern in 
its expression. He motioned her to a chair; and, while he was 
reading her letter, she continued the perusal of his features. 



444 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

After he had finished, he looked up, ran his fingers through 
his slightly silvered brown hair, and with an air of sad 
severity said: "Madam, this matter of northern hospitals 
has been talked of a great deal, and I thought it was settled ; 
but it seems this is not the case. What have you got 
to say about it?" "Simply this," she replied, "that many 
soldiers, sick in our western army on the Mississippi, must 
have northern air, or die. There are thousands of graves 
along the Mississippi and Yazoo, for which the government 
is responsible — ignorantly, undoubtedly; but this ignorance 
must not continue. If you will permit these men to come 
North, you, will have ten men in one year where you have 
got one now." 

Mr. Lincoln could not see the logic of this. Shrugging his 
shoulders, and smiling in his peculiar, quizzical way, he said : 
" If your reasoning were correct, your argument would be a 
o-ood one. I do n't see how sending one sick man North is 
going to give us ten well ones." The lady replied: "You 
understand me, I think." " Yes, yes," said he, " I understand 
you ; but if they go North they will desert, and where is the 
difference?" Her reply was: "Dead men cannot fight, and 
they may not desert." "A fine way to decimate the army ! " 
exclaimed the President. "We should never get a man 
k ac k — n ot one — not one." " Pardon me," responded the lady, 
"but I believe you are mistaken. You do not understand our 
people. They are as true and as loyal to the government as 
yourself. The loyalty is among the common soldiers, and 
they are the chief sufferers." Almost contemptuously Mr. 
Lincoln replied : " This is your opinion ! " 

The reader will see in this exhibition of petulance, evidence 
that the President was conscious of being undermined in his 

predeterminations. "Mrs. ■ ," said he, earnestly, "How 

many men of the army of the Potomac do you suppose the 
government was paying at the battle of Antietam? and how 
many men do you suppose could be got for active service at 
thattime?" She replied: "I know nothing of the army of 
the Potomac, except that it has made some noble sacrifices." 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 445 

"Well, but give a guess," persisted the President. "Indeed, 
I cannot," was her answer. lie threw himself awkwardly 
around in his chair, with one leg over the arm, and spoke 
slowly: "This war might have been finished at that time, if 
every man had been in his place who was able to be there ; 
but they were scattered here and there over the North — some 
on furloughs, and in one way and another gone, so that, out 
of one hundred and seventy thousand men, whom the gov- 
ernment was paying, only eighty-three thousand could be got 
for action. The consequences, you know, proved nearly dis- 
astrous." The President paused for a response, and it came. 
"It was very sad; but the delinquents were certainly not in 
northern hospitals, nor were they deserters from northern hos- 
pitals, for we have had none : so your argument is not against 
them." 

The President appreciated this logic thoroughly, and re- 
plied : ""Well, well; you go and call on the Secretary of War, 
and see what he says." He then took the lady's letter, and 

wrote on the back : " Admit Mrs. at once. Listen to 

what she says. She is a lady of intelligence, and talks sense. 
A. Lincoln." "May I return to you, Mr. Lincoln?" she in- 
quired. "Certainly," said he, gently; and then the lady 
found her way to Mr. Stanton's office, and was listened to and 
treated with great respectfulness and kindness. She was told 
by the Secretary that he had sent the Surgeon-general to New 
Orleans, with directions to come up the river, and visit all the 

hospitals. Mrs. had no faith in these inspections, and 

told him so — told him, further, that no good to the western 
soldiers had ever resulted from them. She also indicated what 
she believed to be the reasons for the favorable reports from 
the southern hospitals, that had uniformly been made. " I 
believe," said she, "that it is because the medical authorities 
know that the heads of departments are opposed to establish- 
ing hospitals so far from army lines, and report accordingly. 
I wish this could be over-ruled. Can nothino- be done?" 
"Nothing until the Surgeon-general returns," he replied. 
Personally, he expressed himself in favor of hospitals in every 



446 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

northern state, but he had to be guided by the medical au- 
thorities. 

She bade him " good morning," and returned to the Presi- 
dent. No one was waiting, and at the invitation of the mes- 
senger she passed directly into the President's room. She 
found a gentleman engaged in conversation with the President, 
but neither noticed her entrance. Taking a seat at a distance 
from the two gentlemen, she waited her opportunity. The 
visitor handed a paper to Mr. Lincoln. He looked it over 
carelessly, and said: " Yes, that is a sufficient indorsement for 
anybody: what do you want?" The reply was not heard; 
but the promotion of some person in the army was strongly 
urged. She heard the sarcastic words from the applicant: 
" I see there are no vacancies among the Brigadiers, from the 
fact that so many Colonels are commanding brigades." 

At this, the President threw himself forward in his chair 
in such a way as to expose to the lady the most curious, com- 
ical expression of features imaginable. He was looking the 
man squarely in the face ; and, with one hand softly patting 
the other, and the funny look pervading every line of his 
countenance, he said : " My friend, let me tell you something 
about that. You are a farmer, I believe ; if not, you will un- 
derstand me. Suppose you had a large cattle-yard, full of all 
sorts of cattle — cows, oxen and bulls, — and you kept killing 
and selling and disposing of your cows and oxen, in one way 
and another, taking good care of your bulls. By and by you 
would find out that you had nothing but a yard full of old 
bulls, good for nothing under heaven. Now it will be just so 
with the army, if I do n't stop making Brigadier-generals." 

The man was answered, and he tried to laugh ; but the ef- 
fort was a feeble one. Mr. Lincoln laughed, however, enough 
for both parties. He laughed all over, and laughed his vis- 
itor out of the room. 

The lady stepped forward ; and, as Mr. Lincoln motioned 
her to a chair, he inquired what the Secretary of War had 
said to her. She gave him a full account of the interview, 
and added: " I have nowhere to go but to you." He replied, 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 447 

" Mr. Stanton knows there is an acting Surgeon-general lure, 
and that Hammond will not return these two months. I will 
see the Secretary of War myself, to-night ; and you may come 
ao-ain in the morning." He then dismissed her in the kindest 
manner and with the kindest words. 

No reader can doubt that from this moment he had deter- 
mined to grant the lady her request ; and this is to be remcir - 
bered in the reading of the interviews which followed ; for in 
these interviews occurred a strange exhibition of his penchant 
for arguing against and opposing his own conclusions — in this 
case almost with temper — certainly not in the most amiable 
manner. 

' In the morning, the lady returned, full of hope, expecting 
to be gi-ceted by the same genial face and cordial manner with 
which Mr. Lincoln had dismissed her. The President raised 
his eyes as she entered his room, said "good morning," and 
pointed to a chair. He was evidently annoyed at something 
which had occurred during some previous conversation of the 
morning, and waited for her to speak. She waited for him. 
"Well?" said he, after a minute of delay. "Well?" replied 
his visitor. He looked up under his eyebrows, a little start- 
led, and inquired: "Have you nothing to say?" "Nothing," 
she replied, "until I hear your decision. Have you decided? 
You know you bade me come this morning." "No, I have not 
decided ; and I believe this idea of northern hospitals is a great 
humbug, and I am tired of hearing about it." The lady pitied 
him in his weak and irritable mood, and said : " I regret to 
add a feather's weight to your already overwhelming care and 
responsibility. I would rather have stayed at home." With 
a feeble smile, he responded: "I wish you had." She was 
earnest, and replied : " Nothing would have given me greater 
pleasure, sir ; but a keen sense of duty to this government, 
justice and mercy to its most loyal supporters, and regard for 
your honor and position, made me come. The people cannot 
understand why their husbands, fathers and sons are left to 
die, when, with proper care and attention, they ought to live, 
and yet do good service for their conntry. Mr. Lincoln, I do 



448 LIFE OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 

believe you will yet be grateful for my coming. I do not 
come to plead for the lives of criminals, nor for the lives of 
deserters ; but I plead for the lives of those who were the first 
to hasten to the support of this government, who helped to 
place you where you are — for men who have done all they 
could ; and now, when flesh and nerve and muscle are gone, 
who still pray for your life, and the life of the republic. They 
scarcely ask for that for which I plead. They expect to sac- 
rifice their lives for their country. I know that, if they could 
come North, they could live, and be well, strong men again, — 
at least, many of them. I say I know, because I was sick 
among them last spring, surrounded by every comfort, with 
the best of care, and determined to get well. I grew weaker 
and weaker, day by day, until, not being under military law, 
my friends brought me North. I recovered entirely by breath- 
ing northern air." 

While she was so earnestly speaking, Mr. Lincoln's expres- 
sion of face changed often, but he did not take his eyes from 
her. He was evidently distressed, for he was convinced that 
she was speaking the truth. His face contracted almost pain- 
fully as he said: "You assume to know more than I do." 
The tears almost came in the lady's eyes as she replied : " Par- 
don me, Mr. Lincoln, I intend no disrespect; but it is because 
of this knowledge, and because I do know what you do not 
know, that I come to you. If you had known what I know, 
and had not already ordered what I ask, I should know that 
an appeal to you would be in vain ; but I believe in you. I 
believe the people have not trusted you in vain. The ques- 
tion only is — do you believe me, or not ? If you believe in 
me, you will give us hospitals; if not — well." 

" You assume to know more than surgeons do," said Mr. 
Lincoln, sharply. "Oh no," she replied; "I could not per- 
form an amputation nearly so well as some of them do. But 
this is true: I do not come here for your favor. I am no 
aspirant for military favor or promotion. While it would be 
the pride of my life to command your respect and confidence, 
still, even this I can waive to gain my object — waive for the 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 449 

time. You will do mc justice, some time. Now the medical 
authorities know as well as you and I do, that you are opposed 
to establishing northern hospitals ; and they report to please 
you. They desire your favor. I come to you from no casual 
tour of inspection, having passed rapidly through the general 
hospitals, with a cigar in my mouth and a ratan in my hand, 
talking to the surgeon in charge of the price of cotton, and 
abusing our generals in the army for not knowing and per- 
forming their duty better, and finally coming into the open air 
with a long-drawn breath as though I had just escaped suffo- 
cation, and complacently saying to the surgeon : ' A very fine 
hospital you have here, Sir. The boys seem to be doing very 
well. A little more attention to ventilation is desirable, per- 
haps.' It is not thus that I have visited hospitals. For eight 
long months — from early morning until late at night, some- 
times — I have visited the regimental and general hospitals on 
the Mississippi, from Quincy to Vicksburg ; and I come to 
you from the cots of men who have died, and who might have 
lived if you had permitted it. This is hard to say, but it is 
true." 

While she was speaking the last sentences, Mr. Lincoln's 
brow had become severely contracted ; and a pained, hard ex- 
pression had settled upon his whole face. Then he sharply 
asked her how many men her state had sent to the field. She 
replied : " about fifty thousand." " That means," he responded, 
" that she has about twenty thousand now." With an unpleas- 
ant voice and manner he continued : " You need not look so 
sober; they are not all dead." The veins filled in his face 
painfully, and one across his forehead was fearfully large and 
blue. Then, with an impatient movement of his whole frame, 
he said : " I have a good mind to dismiss them all from the 
service, and have no more trouble with them." 

The lady was astonished, as she might well be, for she knew 
that he was not in earnest. They sat looking at one another 
in silence. He had become very pale, and at last she broke 
the silence by saying: "They have been faithful to the gov- 
ernment ; they have been faithful to you ; they will still be 
29 



450 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

loyal to the government, do what you will with them. But, 
if vou will grant my petition, you will be glad as long as you 
live. The prayers of grateful hearts will give you strength 
in the hour of trial, and strong and willing arms will return 
to fight your battles." 

The President bowed his head ; and, with a look of sadness 
which it is impossible for language to describe, said: "I shall 
never be glad any more.'''' All severity had passed away from 
his face, and he seemed looking inward and backward, and 
appeared unconscious of the fact that he was not alone. The 
great burdens he had borne, the terrible anxieties and per- 
plexities that had poisoned his life at the fountain, and the 
peaceful scenes he had forever left behind, swept across his 
memory; and then the thought that it was possible that he 
had erred in judgment, and done injustice to the noble men 
who had fought the nation's battles, brought back all his child- 
like tenderness. 

The lady heard his mournful utterances, and said : " Oh ! do 
not say so, Mr. Lincoln, for who will have so much reason to 
rejoice as yourself, when the government shall be restored — 
■as it will be?" 

"I know — I know," he said, pressing a hand on either side; 
"but the springs of life are wearing away, and I shall not 
last." She asked him if he felt that his great cares were in- 
juring his health. "No," he replied; "not directly, perhaps.'' 
She asked him if he slept well. He never was a good sleeper, 
he replied, and of course slept now less than ever before. 
Then, with earnestness, he said: "The people do not yet com- 
prehend the magnitude of this rebellion, and will be a long 
time before the end." 

The lady, feeling that she had occupied too much of his 
time, rose to take her leave ; and, as she did so, said : " Have 
you decided upon your answer to me?" "No," he replied, 
" come to-morrow morning : — stop, it is cabinet-meeting to- 
morrow. Yes, come at twelve o'clock ; there is not much for 
the cabinet to do, to-morrow." Then he bade his visitor a 
cordial good morning, and she retired. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 451 

Tlic next morning, the lady found that her interview had 
prostrated her; but at twelve o'clock she was at the White 
House. The President sent her word that the cabinet would 
adjourn soon, and that she must wait. For three long hours 
she waited, receiving occasional messages from Mr. Lincoln, 
to the effect that the cabinet would soon adjourn, and he would 
then see her. She was in distress, expecting defeat. She 
walked the room, and gazed at the maps, and, at last, she heard 
the sound of feet. The cabinet had adjourned. Mr. Lincoln 
did not send for her, but came shuffling into the room, rubbing 
his hands, and saying : " My dear Madam, I am sorry I have 
kept you waiting so long, but we have this moment adjourned." 
" My waiting is no matter," she replied, " but you must be 
very tired, and we will not talk to-night." Bidding her to a 
seat, she having risen as he entered, he sat down at her side, 
and quietly remarked : " I only wish to say to you that an 
order which is equivalent to the granting of a hospital in your 
state, has been issued from the War Department, nearly 
twenty-four hours." 

The lady could make no reply, except through the tears 
that sprang at once. Mr. Lincoln looked on, and enjoyed it. 
When, at last, she could command her voice, she said: "God 
bless you ! " Then, as doubts came, touching the nature of 
the order, she said earnestly: "Do you mean, really and truly, 
that we are going to have a hospital now?" With a look full 
of benevolence and tenderness, — such a look as rarely illumi- 
nates any face, — he said: "I do most certainly hope so;" and 
then he told her to come on the following mornino-, and he 
would give her a copy of the order. But his visitor was too 
much affected to talk; and perceiving this, he kindly changed 
the subject, asking her to look at a map which huno- in the 
room, representing the great battle-grounds of Europe. "It 
is a very fine map," said he; "see — here is Waterloo, here 
are all the battle-fields about the Crimea." Then, suddenly 
turning to the lady, he said: "I 'm afraid you will not like it 
so well, when I tell you who executed it." She replied: "It 
is a great work, whoever executed it. Who was it, Mr. 



452 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

President?" " McClellan," lie answered, and added: "He 
certainly did do this well. He did it while he was at West 
Point." 

The next morning, sick with the excitement through which 
she had passed, the lady was at the White House again. 
She found more than fifty persons waiting for an audience ; 
so she sent in her name, and said she would call again. The 
messenger said he thought the President would see her, and 
she had better be seated. Soon afterward, he informed her 
that the President would see her. As she passed in, she heard 
the words from one of the waiting throng : " She has been 
here six days; and, what is more, she is going to win." As 
she entered, Mr. Lincoln smiled pleasantly, drew a chair to 
his side, and said : " Come here, and sit down." As she did 
so, he handed her a copy of the coveted order. She thanked 
•him, and apologized for not being more promptly at the house ; 
she had been sick all night. "Did joy make you sick?" he 
inquired. "I suppose," he added, "you would have been 
mad if I had said 'no.'" She replied: "No, Mr. Lincoln, I 
should have been neither angry nor sick." "What would 
you have done ? " he inquired. " I should have been here at 
nine o'clock this morning." "Well," said he, laughing, "I 
think I have acted wisely then." Then he turned suddenly, 
and looked into her face as he said : " Do n't you ever get 
angry?" She replied that she never did when she had an 
important object to attain. Further conversation occurred as 
to the naming of the hospital, when the lady rose, and said : 
"You will not wish to see me again." "I did not say that, 
and I shall not say it," said the President. "You have been 
very kind to me, and I am very grateful for it," said his visi- 
tor. He looked up at her from under his eyebrows, in his 
peculiar way, and said: "You almost think I am handsome, 
don't you?" His face was full of benevolence, and his coun- 
tenance lighted by a cordial smile ; and it is not strange that 
the lady exclaimed: "You are perfectly lovely to me now, 
Mr. Lincoln." The President colored a little, and laughed a 
good deal, at the impulsive response, and reached out his hand 



LIFE Or ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 453 

to bid her farewell. She took it reverently, bowed her head 
upon it, and, bowing, prayed: "God bless you, Abraham Lin- 
coln ! " Then she turned, heard his "good bye," and was gone. 

"I shall never be glad anymore!" The young men of 
his people were slain. His enemies were seeking his life. 
With a heart that beat kindly toward every human being, 
his motives were maligned, and his good name was contemned ; 
greedy politicians and ambitious officers were about him, 
pushing forward their selfish schemes; he had daily experience 
of the faithlessness of men; and "this great trouble," as he 
was accustomed to call the war, was always on his mind and 
heart. He could not sleep ; and, such was the character of 
the impression he had received from all his toils and cares, 
that he felt he could never be glad any more. 

In Mr. Lincoln's senatorial campaign, and during the course 
of his debates with Mr. Douglas, it will be remembered 
that he was not once betrayed into a loss of temper. He was 
misrepresented and abused in every way, in order to break 
down his good nature; but, from the first to the last, he did 
not utter an angry or an impatient word. Then he was well — 
in the full strength of a hardy constitution. The interview 
just narrated has shown how much he had become changed 
by bearing the burdens of office. When he saw that his vis- 
itor was not only overthrowing his theory but the policy he 
had based upon it, and felt either that he was, or that ho might 
be, in the wrong, he became peevish and querulous. This 
was very unlike Mr. Lincoln in health. He was one of the 
most generous of men in his dealings ; but weakness and weari- 
ness made him on this, and on some other occasions, childish and 
petulant. Exhibitions of this character, which occurred dur- 
ing the last two years of his life, are all referable to the pros- 
trated and irritable condition of his nervous system, resulting 
from excessive labor, mental suffering, and loss of sleep. 

The interview with the lady will show, too, how universal 
and how minute were his cares. This case was only one 
among ten thousand cases that came to him for decision. It 
was a great thing to her, and of itself made her sick. It 



454 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

lasted -with her a week. It concerned the establishment of a 
hospital, simply. With him, the burden never was laid aside. 
lie bore hundreds of matters upon his mind, all as important 
as this ; and felt pressing upon his shoulders the interests of 
freedom, the future of a wonderful nation, and the destiny of 
a race ; while he wielded as instruments for the accomplish- 
ment of his purposes a great government, and an army com 
posed of the flower of the national life. It was killing him- 
There was always one tired spot in him that w T as not reached 
by rest. 

Throughout the rebellion, Mr. Lincoln was the recipient of 
manj" attentions from the various bodies which constitute the 
Christian church of America. There was hardly a denomi- 
nation that did not take occasion to express itself upon the 
war, and the great questions of humanity which it involved. 
They visited Mr. Lincoln at the "White House; they ap- 
proached him with addresses and resolutions ; and the major- 
ity of them called forth from him either spoken or written 
responses. Representatives of foreign religious and philan- 
thropic organizations mingled their voices with these. Ex- 
pressions of personal sympathy, declarations of loyalty and 
devotion to the national cause, recommendations of policy, 
counsels, prayers, encouragements, — all poured in, in almost 
bewildering profusion, and of themselves became a burden. 
McPherson's History of the Rebellion gives forty-seven large 
and finely printed pages, consisting entirely of records of the 
action of the northern churches upon the rebellion ; and the 
results of this action were communicated to the President in a 
way to draw from him either grateful acknowledgments, or re- 
sponses that related to their subject matter. 

The wear and tear of brain and nerve were often manifested 
in a deep melancholy, to which he had a natural tendency. 
"Whichever way it ends," said he to Mrs. Stowe, the au- 
thoress, alluding to the war, "I have the impression that I 
shall not last long after it is over." Hon. Schuyler Colfax 
met him one morning, after having received bad news which 
had not been made public. He had neither slept nor break- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 455 

fasted, and exclaimed : " How willingly would I exchange 
places to-day with the soldier who sleeps on the ground in the 
army of the Potomac ! " During the doubts and disasters of 
18G2, a member of Congress called on him for conversation. 
Mr. Lincoln began to tell a trifling story. "Mr. President," 
said the Congressman, rising, "I did not come here this morn- 
ing to hear stories. It is too serious a time." The smile 
fled from Mr. Lincoln's face, as he replied: "A., sit down. 
I respect you as an earnest and sincere man. You cannot be 
more anxious than I am constantly ; and I say to you now, 
that, if it were not for this occasional vent, I should die." To 
another he said : " I feel a presentiment that I shall not outlast 
the rebellion. When it is over, my work will be done." Of 
this presentiment he made no secret, but spoke of it to many 
of his friends. 

Thus sad and weary, working early and late, full of the con- 
sciousness that God was working through him for the accom- 
plishment of great ends, praying daily for strength and guid- 
ance, with a heart full of warm charity toward his foes, and 
open with sympathy toward the poor and the suffering, this 
Christian Presided sat humbly in his high seat, and did his 
duty. It is with genuine pain that the writer is compelled to 
leave behind, unrecorded, save in the floating literature of the 
day, multiplied instances which illustrate his tender-hearted- 
ness, his pity, his over-ruling sense of justice, his patience 
under insult, his loveliness of spirit, his devotion to humanity, 
his regard for the poor and the despised, his truthfulness, his 
simplicity, and the long list of manly virtues which distin- 
guished his character and his career. They would of them- 
selves fill a volume. 

Mr. Lincoln's character was one which will grow. It will 
become the basis of an ideal man. It was so pure, and so un- 
selfish, and so rich in its materials, that fine imaginations will 
spring from it, to blossom and bear fruit through all the cen- 
turies. This element was found in Washington, whose hu- 
man weaknesses seem to have faded entirely from memory, 
leaving him a demi-trod ; and it will be found in Mr. Lincoln 



456 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

in a still more remarkable degree. The black race have 
already crowned him. With the black man, and particularly 
the black freed man, Mr. Lincoln's name is the saintliest which 
he pronounces, and the noblest he can conceive. To the 
emancipated, he is more than man — a being scarcely second 
to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. That old, white-headed 
negro who undertook to tell what "Massa Linkum" was to 
his dark-minded brethren, imbodied the vague conceptions 
of his race, in the words : " Massa Linkum, he ebery whar ; 
he know ebery ting; he walk de earf like de Lord." He was 
to these men the incarnation of power and goodness ; and his 
memory will live in the hearts of this unfortunate and op- 
pressed race while it shall exist upon the earth. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Ox the 9th of December, 1863, Mr. Lincoln sent in his an- 
nual message to Congress, which had assembled on the seventh. 
It represented the country as holding satisfactory relations 
with foreign powers ; spoke favorably of the establishment of 
an international telegraph across the Atlantic ; referred to the 
movements abroad for emigration to this country, to fill the 
demand for labor in every field of industry ; stated that the 
operations of the Treasury Department had been successfully 
conducted during the year; and gave a general historical ac- 
count of the operations of the army and navy. Eleven months 
had passed since the final proclamation of emancipation was 
issued ; and Mr. Lincoln took up the matter to see what prog- 
ress had been made under its operations. The policy of eman- 
cipation and of the employment of black Soldiers had changed 
the aspect of affairs ; and, though it was immediately followed 
by dark and doubtful days, the results had vindicated its wis- 
dom. The rebel borders had been pressed still further back ; 
the rebel territory had been divided by the opening of the 
Mississippi ; Tennessee and Arkansas had been substantially 
cleared of insurgent control; and, in these states, influen- 
tial citizens were declaring openly for emancipation. Mary- 
land and Missouri, neither of which states, three years previ- 
ously, would tolerate any restraint upon the extension of slav- 
ery into new territories, were disputing only as to the best 
mode of removing it from their own limits. Of those who 
were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion, full one hundred 



458 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

thousand were in the military service of the United States, 
and about one-half of them were bearing arms in the ranks. 
No servile insurrection, or tendency to violence or cruelty, 
had marked the measures of emancipation and the arming of 
the blacks. The tone of public feeling abroad had improved 
under the influence of the policy, while the government had 
been encouraged and supported by elections at home. The 
new reckoning showed that the crisis which threatened to di- 
vide the friends of the Union was passed. 

The message treated with considerable detail a question 
which had, from the first, been one of great importance, and 
which, it was seen, would grow more important with the prog- 
ress of events. On the day previous to the delivery of the 
message, he had issued a proclamation of amnesty, to all those 
engaged in the rebellion who should take an oath to support, 
protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and 
the Union of the states under it, with the acts of Congress 
passed during the rebellion, and the proclamations of the Presi- 
dent concerning slaves. This proclamation made certain ex- 
ceptions of persons in the civil and military service of the 
rebel government, and of persons who had left the civil and 
military service of the United States to aid in the rebellion. 
It further declared that whenever, in any of the rebel states, 
a number of persons, not less than one-tenth of the qualified 
voters, should take this oath, and establish a state government 
which should be republican, it should be recognized as the 
true government of the state. These were the principal pro- 
visions of the proclamation ; and to them the President called 
congressional attention. 

He had issued it, he said, "looking to the present and the 
future, and with reference to a resumption of the national 
authority in the states wherein that authority had been sus- 
pended." He had given the form of an oath ; but no man 
was coerced to take it. Men were only promised pardon in 
case they should voluntarily take it. Amnesty was offered, 
so that, if, in any of the rebel states, a state government should 
be set up, in the mode prescribed, it should be recognized and 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 459 

guaranteed by the United States, and protected against inva- 
sion and domestic violence. The following passage is his jus- 
tification for prescribing the peculiar oath which he had made 
the condition of pardon : 

"An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived state government, 
constructed in whole or in preponderating part from the very element 
against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected, is simply 
absurd. There must be a test by which to separate the opposing ele- 
ments, so as to build only from the sound; and that test is a sufficiently 
liberal one which accepts as sound whoever wdl make a sworn recanta- 
tion of his former unsoundness. But, if it be proper to require, as a 
test of admission to the political body, an oath of allegiance to the Con- 
stitution of the United States and to the Union under it, why also to the 
laws and proclamations in regard to slavery ? Those laws and procla- 
mations were enacted, and put forth, for the purpose of aiding in the 
suppression of the rebellion. To give them their fullest effect, there 
had to be a pledge for their maintenance. In my judgment, they have 
aided and will further aid the cause for which they were intended. To 
now abandon them, would be not only to relinquish a lever of power, 
but would also be a cruel and an astounding breach of faith. I may 
add, at this point, that while I remain in my present position, I shall 
not attempt to retract, or modify, the Emancipation Proclamation; nor 
shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that 
proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress. 

" For these and other reasons, it is thought best that support of these 
measures shall be included in the oath ; and it is believed that the Ex- 
ecutive may lawfully claim it, in return for pardon and restoration of 
forfeited rights, which he has a clear constitutional power to withhold 
altogether, or grant upon the terms which he shall deem wisest for the 
public interest. It should be observed, also, that this part of the oath 
is subject to the modifying and abrogating power of legislation and 
supreme judicial decision." 

This proclamation was issued as a rallying point for those 
loyal or penitent elements which were believed to exist in 
many of the insurgent states, and which, in the confusion 
of plans for reconstruction, were lying dormant, and with- 
out practical advantage to the states themselves and to the 
government. He believed his plan of reconstruction would 
save labor, and avoid great confusion. On the 24th of 
March, 18G4, he issued a supplementary and explanatory 



460 LIFE OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN. 

proclamation, defining more carefully the cases in -which reb- 
els were to be pardoned, and the manner in which they were 
to avail themselves of the benefits of the amnesty. He shut 
out many from the benefits of the proclamation, though he 
excluded none from personal application to the President for 
clemency. 

The action of Congress during this session was not of nota- 
ble importance. Important subjects were discussed at length ; 
but they were not embodied in measures, or, rather, the meas- 
ures sought to be enacted were not successfully carried 
through. A bill for the establishment of a Bureau of Freed- 
men's Affairs passed the House, but failed in the Senate ; while 
a resolution to submit to a vote of the states an amendment 
of the Constitution, permanently prohibiting the existence of 
slavery in the states and territories of the Union, was passed 
by the Senate, but rejected by the House. The fugitive slave 
law — one of those compromise measures which were to silence 
the anti-slavery agitation forever, and be a final settlement of 
the slavery question — was repealed, with surprising ease and 
unanimity. A heated debate occurred upon a resolution 
introduced by Speaker Colfax, for the expulsion from the 
House of Alexander Long of Ohio, for declaring himself in 
favor of recogftizing the rebel confederacy. A two-thirds 
vote being necessary for the purpose of the resolution, and 
this vote not being; obtainable, the mover contented himself 
with a substitute, declaring Mr. Long an unworthy member 
of the House. During the discussion of the resolution, Mr. 
Harris of Maryland thanked God that the South had not yet 
been brought into subjection, and prayed God that it might 
not be ; and straightway a resolution was introduced for his 
expulsion, which failed of passage by lack of the requisite 
two-thirds vote. He was, however, "severely censured;" 
and, although no extreme measures were effected in these 
cases, the debate had a healthy influence, in defining the boun- 
daries of legitimate debate on the great questions which agi- 
tated the country. 

An out-topping of the M^ouri imbroglio showed itself 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 461 

above the surface during the session. General F. P. Blair 
resigned his seat in the House, and resumed his place in the 
army, at the close of a discussion introduced by one of his 
colleagues, who charged him with improprieties in the admin- 
istration of affairs in his department. Although he cleared 
himself of the charges, the House called upon the President 
for an explanation of his restoration to command. The Presi- 
dent gave them a reply at length, and frankly stated all the 
circumstances of the case. The two facts which the letter 
and all the correspondence in the case reveal most promi- 
nently, were, that Mr. Lincoln had a strong personal friend- 
ship for General Blair, and a firm belief in his anti-slavery 
principles and sentiments ; and that he wished him to be where 
he could do the government the most good in the prosecution 
of the Avar. Mr. Lincoln's representation of the case was, 
that General Blair and General Schenck of Ohio, having been 
elected to Congress, were permitted to resign their commis- 
sions, -and take their seats, with the distinct verbal under- 
standing with the President and the Secretary of War that 
they might, at their pleasure, withdraw their resignations, 
leave their places in the House, and return to the field. It is 
apparent that Mr. Lincoln wished for General Blair's aid in 
the organization of the House, and, after that, in the field, if 
he could be most useful to the government there. The ar- 
rangement seems to have been a little irregular, though en- 
tered upon with the best motives. It was one of Mr. Lincoln's 
short cuts out of the labyrinth of " red tape," in which it was 
always difficult for him to walk. In a letter which he wrote 
to Montgomery Blair, he revealed one of the motives which 
actuated him in making the arrangement. " It will relieve 
him (the General) from a dangerous position, or a misunder- 
iStandinpi;," said he, " as I think he is in danger of being per- 
imanently separated from those with whom only he can ever 
have a real sympathy — the sincere opponents of slavery." 

A measure which time has proved to be of great importance 
was the restoration of the grade of Lieutenant-general, with 
reference to investing General Grant with the chief command 



462 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of the armies of the United States. His appointment to this 
office, by the President, was an expression of the popular con- 
fidence in his devotion to the national cause, and his trans- 
cendent ability as a military man. In presenting him with his 
commission, Mr. Lincoln took occasion to say : " The expres- 
sion of the nation's approbation of what you have already 
done, and its reliance on you for what remains to do, in the 
existing struggle, is now presented with this commission, con- 
stituting you Lieutenant-general of the armies of the United 
States." The modest General made a fitting response: "I 
feel the full weight of the responsibilities now devolving on 
me ; and I know that, if they are met, it will be due to those 
armies, and above all to the favor of that Providence which 
leads both nations and men." Fit officer with fit superior! 
Two simpler-hearted, truer men than President Lincoln and 
Lieutenant-general Grant, have not been produced by the re- 
public ; and, in their hands, unweakened by selfish ambition, 
and entirely consecrated to the work of saving the country, 
the cause of nationality, freedom, and humanity was destined 
to a glorious triumph. The victories of both had been victo- 
ries of character. Not brilliant gifts, but a noble spirit had 
made the President a mighty man. Neither the courage of 
the brute nor the dash of the cavalier had made General 
Grant a great soldier ; but a devoted purpose and a will of iron 
had crowned him with the name and enrobed him with the 
prestige of the greatest general living. 

An incident occurred on the 18th of April, 18G4, which 
forcibly illustrated the progress, not only of events, but of 
ideas. A grand fair, for the benefit of the United States 
Sanitary Commission, the original and leading charity estab- 
lished to mitigate the immediate horrors of war, was held in 
Baltimore ; and one of the attractions was the presence and the 
voice of President Lincoln. Three years had introduced and 
confirmed great changes. Three years before this occasion, 
he was obliged to pass through the city in the night, to escape 
assassination. Three years before, the Massachusetts Sixth, 
hastening to the protection of Washington, had left some of 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 4G3 

their members dead in tlic streets. Three years before, the 
whole city was seething with treason. Now, gold was pour- 
ing into the treasury of the great charity which had been es- 
tablished to aid the soldiers of the Union; and the President 
was welcomed to the city with grateful gladness. 

There was a large crowd, and, in the anxiety to get a 
glimpse of Mr. Lincoln and to hear his voice, great confusion; 
but enough of his remarks have been preserved to give an 
idea of their drift and spirit. " Calling it to mind that we 
are in Baltimore," said he, " we cannot fail to note that the 
world moves. Looking upon the many people I see assembled 
here, to serve as they best may the soldiers of the Union, it 
occurs to me that three years ago those soldiers could not pass 
through Baltimore. I would say, blessings upon the men who 
have wrought these changes, and the women who have assisted 
them!" These allusions to the changes in Baltimore were 
heartily applauded by the Baltimoreans ; and, when he pro- 
ceeded to the mention of changes which had been wrought 
upon the institution of slavery, the applause was still more 
hearty and enthusiastic. Maryland had practically abolished 
the institution ; and the President thanked her for what she 
had done and what she was doing. 

A month or two later, the President attended another fair 
of the Sanitary Commission at Philadelphia. Of course, these 
movements were not entered upon to gratify a love of excite- 
ment or a desire for display, but to manifest his friendliness 
to the beneficent purposes of the commission. Here a grand 
supper was given ; and, in response to a toast, Mr. Lincoln 
made a brief speech. Opening with an allusion to the terrors 
and burdens of war, he spoke of the two great associations 
which had done so much to relieve the soldier, in the field and 
in the hospital, and paid a grateful tribute to the ministry of 
woman in the great work of alleviating the suffering of the 
army. Speaking of the generous outpouring of means for 
sustaining these charities, he said : " They are voluntary con- 
tributions, giving pi-oof that the national resources are not at 
all exhausted, and that the national patriotism will sustain us 



464: LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

through all." Here, as always and everywhere, the war was 
uppermost in his mind. " It is a pertinent question," said he, 
" AY hen is the war to end ? I do not wish to name a day 
when it will end, lest the end should not come at the given 
time. We accepted the Avar, and did not begin it. We ac- 
cepted it for an object, and, when that object is accomplished, 
the war will end ; and I hope to God it will never end until 
that object is accomplished. We are going through with our 
task, so far as I am concerned, if it takes us three years longer. 
I have not been in the habit of making predictions, but I am 
almost tempted now to hazard one. It is, that Grant is this 
evenino- in a position, with Meade and Hancock of Pennsyl- 
vania, whence he can never be dislodged by the enemy, until 
Richmond is taken." Events that wait to be recounted veri- 
fied the President's prediction. 

A fair for the benefit of the soldiers, held at the Patent 
Office, in Washington, called out Mr. Lincoln as an interested 
visitor ; and he was not permitted to retire without giving a 
word to those in attendance. "In this extraordinary war," 
said he, " extraordinary developments have manifested them- 
selves, such as have not been seen in former wars ; and among 
these manifestations nothing has been more remarkable than 
these fairs for the relief of suffering soldiers and their families. 
And the chief agents in these fairs are the women of America. 
I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy ; I have 
never studied the art of paying compliments to women ; but 
I must say that if all that has been said by orators and poets, 
since the creation of the world, in praise of women, were ap- 
plied to the women of America, it would not do them justice 
for their conduct during this war. I will close by saying, 
God bless the women of America!" 

The government was pledged to the protection of its black 
soldiers. The President felt that the matter involved many 
difficulties, for the government was not always able to protect 
them. When these soldiers were shown no quarter in battle, 
or when, as prisoners, they were killed or enslaved by the in- 
furiated and unscrupulous foe, he who could not prevent his 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 4G5 

white soldiers from starving to death in rebel prisons, could 
hardly protect the colored soldiers from the indignities which 
rebel policy and rebel .-pite inflicted upon them. But he did 
what he could. As early as July 30th, 1863, he issued an 
order declaring that: "The government of the United States 
will give the same protection to all its soldiers; and, if the 
enemy shall sell or enslave any one, because of his color, the 
offense shall be punished by retaliation upon the enemy's pris- 
oners in our posses-ion." Proceeding, he definitely ordered, 
"that for every soldier of the United States killed in violation 
of the laws of war, a rebel soldier should (shall) be executed; 
and for every one enslaved by the enemy, or sold into slavery, 
a rebel soldier should (shall) be placed at hard labor on the 
public works, and continued at such labor until the other 
should (shall) be released, or receive such treatment as was 
(is, or may be) due to a prisoner of war." This matter of 
reraliation was brought up during Mr. Lincoln's speech at the 
Baltimore Fair, to which allusion has been made in tins chap- 
ter. He had just heard the rumor of the massacre of black 
soldiers and white officers at Fort Pillow. His mind was full 
of the horrible event; and, as his custom was, he spoke of 
that which interested him most. The public thought the gov- 
ernment was not doing its whole duty in this matter. For 
the measure which put the black man into the war, he de- 
clared himself responsible to the American people, the future 
historian, and, above all, to God; and he declared that the 
black soldier ought to have, and should have, the same 
protection given to the white soldier. His closing words 
were : 

" It is an error to say that the government is not acting in this mat- 
ter. The government has no direct evidence to confirm the reports in 
existence relative to this massacre, but I believe the facts in relation to 
it to be as stated. When the government does know the facts from of- 
ficial sources, and they prove to substantiate the reports, retribution 
will be surely given. What is reported, I think, will make a clear case. 
If it is not true, then all such stories are to be considered as false. If 
proved to be true, when the matter shall be thoroughly examined, what 
30 



406 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

shape is to be given to the retribution? Can we take the man who was 
captured at Vicksburg, and shoot him for the victim of this massacre V 
If it should happen that it was the act of only one man, what course is 
to be pursued then? It is a matter requiring careful examination and 
deliberation; and, if it shall be substantiated by sufficient evidence, all 
may rest assured that retribution will be had." 

And now we leave these minor matters, for the considera- 
tion of great and decisive events, concerning alike the life of 
Mr. Lincoln and the life of the nation. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

The year 1864 was distinguished by two grand campaigns: 
one, political; the other, military: and, as the latter did not 
terminate with the year, it is well, perhaps, to give the former 
the precedence in the record. After four years, marked by 
mighty changes in the nation, the year of the presidential 
election had come again. It came in with doubt and darkness. 
The country was feeling the distresses of the Avar, and was 
wincing under the drafts made upon its vital and financial re- 
sources. Call after call for men had been made. Draft after 
draft had been enforced. Taxation brought home the burden 
to every man's door; and still no end appeared. Still the 
rebel confederacy seemed full of vitality; still it commanded 
immense resources of men and material ; still its spirit and its 
words were uncompromising and defiant. During four years 
of administration, Mr. Lincoln had made many enemies, among 
those who had originally supported him ; and the democratic 
party were not scrupulous in the use of means to bring him 
into disrepute with the people. Many republicans suffered 
under private grievances. Their counsels had not been suffi- 
ciently followed ; their friends had not been properly served. 
Some thought Mr. Lincoln had been too fast and too severe in 
his measures ; others thought that he had been too slow. All 
this was to have been expected ; and it may well be imagined 
that no decision as to the true policy of the republican party, 
in its nominations, could have been made, without an exhibi- 
tion of all the elements of discord. 

That this period had been anticipated by friends and ene- 



468 LIFE OF ABFvAHAM LINCOLN. 

mies abroad as one of the most terrible tests to which the re- 
publican institutions of the country had been or could be sub- 
jected, was evident. We were called upon in the very heat 
of civil war — that war involving questions upon which even 
the loyal portion of the country was almost evenly divided — 
to elect a president for four years. With immense armies in 
the field and immense navies afloat, — with fresh drafts for 
troops threatened or in progress, — with discord among the 
friends of the government and the foes of the rebellion, — and 
with a watchful opposition, skilled in party warfare, taking ad- 
vantage of every mistake of the government and every suc- 
cess of its enemies, to push its own fortunes in the strife for 
power, — it is not strange that cool observers looked doubtfully 
uporj the result, as it related to the power of a republican 
government to take care of itself, and maintain its hold upon 
the nation and its place among the governments of the world. 
How well the people behaved in this startling emergency, the 
calm discussions of the presidential campaign, the solemn and 
conscientious manner of the people at the polls, the triumph 
of the national arms, and the present peace and stability of 
the country, bear witness. 

Mr. Chase, the distinguished Secretary of the Treasury, 
had his friends, and they were many and powerful. General 
Fremont had also his friends, who felt that he had not been 
well treated by the administration, and who were anxious for 
a diversion in his favor. Although both of these o-entlemen 
had strong adherents among the politicians, and although 
either of them would have been cordially supported by the 
people under favorable circumstances, it was abundantly evi- 
dent that the great masses of the people were in favor of Mr. 
Lincoln. He had had experience, and had grown wise under 
its influence. His unobtrusive character and his unbending 
honesty had won their confidence; and, although the future 
looked dark, they were conscious that progress had been made 
toward the destruction of the rebellion, and that, if the policy 
of war should be pursued, it would inevitably ultimate in the 
national success. They were convinced, also, that the way to 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 4G9 

a permanent peace was through Avar. Under these circum- 
stances, they were reluctant to change leaders and rulers. 
The result was, that, at an early day, Mr. Chase withdrew 
his name from the list of candidates, and left much of the dis- 
affected element afloat. 

Outside of the republican and democratic parties, there was 
no organization; and, to institute one, an irresponsible call 
was issued, for a convention to be held at Cleveland, Ohio, on 
the thirty-first of May. The call represented that the public 
liberties were in danger, and declared for the "one-term prin- 
ciple," by which Mr. Lincoln should be set aside, however 
efficiently he might have served the government. The regu- 
lar convention of the republican party, which was to be held 
at Baltimore on the eighth of June, was denounced in the call, 
as failing to answer the conditions of a truly national conven- 
tion, in consequence of its proximity to " administrative in- 
fluence." 

The people recognized this call to be simply what it, in 
reality, was — an anti-Lincoln demonstration ; and paid no at- 
tention to it, except in one or two instances. The Germans 
of Missouri did something by way of indorsement ; as did also 
a few radicals elsewhere, who had really never been members 
of the republican party proper. 

The convention was held at the appointed time; and it 
brought together an insignificant number of politicians, self- 
appointed to their seats in the convention. It was, in no sense, 
the offspring of the popular feeling or conviction ; and its ac- 
tion found no response in the popular heart. Fremont's name 
formed the rallying point of the convention. "Wendell Phillips 
and Frederick Douglass sent letters to it. Mrs. E. Cady 
Stanton approved of the convention in a letter. John Coch- 
rane presided, and Avas honored with the nomination for Vice- 
president, on the ticket Avith General Fremont. The platform 
adopted dealt briefly with generalities, condemning no person 
save by implication, and containing no vital element Avhich 
had not already been appropriated by the mass of republicans 
throughout the nation. Although the convention was org-an- 



470 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

izcd and engineered to bring an influence to bear upon the 
Baltimore Convention, it failed to have influence anywhere. 

The saddest feature of the whole movement was General 
Fremont's connivance with it, when he could not but see that 
its only influence Avould be to divide the friends of the gov- 
ernment ; and the eagerness with which he accepted his nomi- 
nation. He opened his letter of acceptance by speaking of 
the convention as an assemblage of the "representatives of 
the people," when he ought to have known that they were 
nothing of the kind. General Fremont, it is to be remem- 
bered here, was the republican candidate for the presidency 
eight years before, receiving the honor of every republican 
vote. The party had once been beaten with him for its stand- 
ard-bearer ; and, if he had been thoroughly magnanimous, he 
would have remembered it. At the opening of the war, Mr. 
Lincoln had given him the highest military commission he had 
it in his power to bestow ; and, after his Missouri failure, he 
had created a department for him. In this, he had not won 
distinguished honor ; and when, at last, he was subordinated 
to another General, to meet the conditions of a great emer- 
gency, he threw up his position on a point of etiquette, and 
retired from his command. Mr. Lincoln had found it very 
difficult to please the General, or to satisfy his friends. The 
President was supposed to be jealous of him ; and, if the read- 
ers of the life of Mr. Lincoln are not already convinced that 
such jealousy could have no place in him, no present attempt 
to vindicate his motives will avail. The truth was that Mr. 
Lincoln entertained none but the kindliest feelings toward him, 
though it is doubtful whether he had great confidence in his 
administrative and military ability. General Fremont knew, 
of course, that the little band of men gathered at Cleveland 
did not represent the republican party; and he knew that the 
republican party loved Mr. Lincoln. The party had been true 
to General Fremont, even if they had been disappointed in 
him. When he undertook to stab the official reputation of the 
President, he was engaged in the attempt to ruin the chosen 
man of the republican party. " Had Mr. Lincoln remained 



LIFE OF ABRA1IAM LINCOLN. 471 

faithful to the principles he was elected to defend, no schism 
could have been created, and no contest could have been pos- 
sible," said the General in his letter. Had the people decided 
that Mr. Lincoln was faithless to the principles he was chosen 
to defend? Had the republican party so decided? "The 
ordinary rights secured under the Constitution and laws of 
the country have been violated," continued the General. He 
charged the administration with managing the war for per- 
sonal ends, with " incapacity and selfishness," with "disregard 
of constitutional rights," with " violation of personal liberty 
and the liberty of the press," and with " feebleness and want 
of principle." Among the objects of the convention itself, 
he recognized the effort " to arouse the attention of the peo- 
ple" to certain alleged facts, which he had enumerated; " and 
to bring them to realize that, while we are saturating southern 
soil with the best blood of the country, in the name of liberty, 
we have really parted with it at home." His own preference, 
he declared : would be to aid in the election of some one, other 
than Mr. Lincoln, who might be nominated at Baltimore, "But 
if Mr. Linooln should be nominated," said he, " as I believe it 
would be fatal to the country to indorse a policy and renew a 
power which has cost us the lives of thousands of men, and 
needlessly put the country on the road to bankruptcy, there 
will be no other alternative but to organize against him every 
element of conscientious opposition, with the view to prevent 
the misfortune of his re-election." 

General Fremont, virtuous above his party, virtuous above 
Mr. Lincoln, quick to see encroachments upon the rights of the 
people in advance of the people themselves, ready to find per- 
sonal motives in the management of the war by the adminis- 
tration, and himself, of course, acting solely upon principle, 
failed to be appreciated by those whose good he so tenderly 
sought. The republican party gave him no response, other 
than at once and forever to count him out of its confidence 
and affections. Convention, platform, and candidates were 
early counted among political lumber ; and whether the Gen- 
eral at last withdrew from the field as a matter of principle, 



472 LIFE OF ABEAIIAM LINCOLN. 

or from personal considerations, does not appear. He with- 
drew his name from the list of candidates before the people in 
September, after it became evident to everybody that his po- 
sition was a damage to the national cause, administering a part- 
ing thrust at Mr. Lincoln in the words: "In respect to Mr. 
Lincoln, I continue to hold exactly the sentiments contained 
in my letter of acceptance. I consider that his administration 
has been politically and financially a failure, and that its nec- 
essary continuance is a cause of regret for the country." 
General Fremont, an old favorite of the republican party, and 
a man who virtually claimed to be a better republican than 
the majority of his party, said this, and said it with a purpose, 
or, wantonly, without a purpose,. when he knew that the al- 
ternative of Mr. Lincoln's election was the election of General 
McClellan, on a peace platform, supported by such patriots as 
Fernando Wood and Clement L. Vallandigham. 

Four days before the date appointed for the assembling of 
the Baltimore Convention, a meeting was held in New York 
to do honor to General Grant. The General had not then 
concluded the war, and had not, in fact, met with decisive suc- 
cesses with the army of the Potomac. There was no special 
occasion for the meeting, except to influence the Baltimore 
Convention in the selection of a candidate. To cover their 
real intent, they invited Mr. Lincoln to attend ; and he sent 
the following letter in response : 

" Gentlemen — Your letter inviting me to be present at a mass meet- 
ing of the loyal citizens, to be held at New York on the fourth inst., for 
the purpose of expressing gratitude to Lieutenant-general Grant for 
his signal services, was received yesterday. It is impossible for me to 
attend. I approve, nevertheless, whatever may tend to strengthen and 
sustain General Grant and the noble armies now under his direction. 
My previous high estimate of General Grant has been maintained and 
heightened by what has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is 
now conducting; while the magnitude and difficulty of the task before 
him does not prove less than I expected. He and Ins brave soldiers 
are now in the midst of their great trial -, and I trust that, at your 
meeting, you will so shape your good words that they may turn to men 
and guns moving to his and their support. 

"Yours truly, A. Lincoln." 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 473 

The cordial tone of the President toward the General, ef- 
fectually neutralized the object of the meeting; and, when the 
Baltimore Convention met, on the eighth of* June, there was 
no name but that of the President that found adherents. 
Many of the delegates had come instructed to vote for him, 
from the conventions which sent them. I\ev. Robert J. Breck- 
inridge of Kentucky, a stern and eloquent old Unionist, was 
chosen temporary chairman; and Hon. William Dennison of 
Ohio was elected to be the permanent president of the con- 
vention. On the following day, Mr. Henry J. Raymond of 
Ncav York, as chairman of the committee on resolutions, pre- 
sented the platform, which was adopted with warm approval, 
and with entire unanimity. It pledged the convention, and 
those it represented, to aid the government in quelling by 
force of arms the rebellion then raging against its authority ; 
approved the determination of the government not to com- 
promise with rebels in arms ; indorsed the acts and proclama- 
tions against slavery, and advocated a constitutional amend- 
ment abolishing it; returned thanks to the soldiers of the 
Union armies, and declared that the nation owed a permanent 
provision for those disabled by the war ; approved of the ad- 
ministration of Mr. Lincoln and the acts and measures which 
he had adopted for the preservation of the nation against its 
open and secret foes; declared that the government owed 
protection to all its soldiers, without distinction of color; af- 
firmed that the national faith, pledged for the redemption of 
the public debt, must be kept inviolate ; and expressed ap- 
proval of the position taken by the government that the people 
of the United States can never regard with indifference the 
attempt of any European power to overthrow by force, or to 
supplant by fraud, the institutions of any republican govern- 
ment on the Western Continent. 

After the adoption of the resolutions, came the ballot for a 
presidential candidate. At the first ballot, every vote was 
given for Mr. Lincoln, except the twenty-two from Missouri 
which, under instructions, were given for General Grant; but 
the nomination w T as made unanimous on the motion of one oi 



474 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the Missouri delegates. Mr. Hamlin, the incumbent of the 
vice-presidential office, though an able and excellent man, was, 
from motives of policy, not regarded by many as the best can- 
didate for that office ; and Andrew Johnson of Tennessee re- 
ceived the nomination. 

A single resolution in the platform, to which no allusion 
is made in the foregoing summary of its leading features, 
covertly demanded a change in the cabinet. The words, 
"We deem it essential to the general welfare that harmony 
should prevail in our national councils, and we regard as 
worthy of confidence and official trust those only who cor- 
dially indorse the principles proclaimed in these resolutions," 
were intended as an intimation that the convention would like 
to have the President dismiss the Postmaster-general, Mont- 
gomery Blair. The resolution was probably a concession to 
the Loyal Leagues, which, originally friendly to the nomina- 
tion of Mr. Chase, took up the differences which were under- 
stood to exist between these two members of the cabinet, and 
demanded that Mr. Blair should retire. A committee con- 
sisting of John M. Ashley, John Covode and George S. 
Boutwell, waited upon the President, on one occasion, to urge 
Mr. Blair's dismissal ; and on that occasion Mr. Lincoln said 
that, if he should be re-elected, he should probably make 
some changes in his cabinet — a reply which they took as an 
assent to their request, and so reported to the body that sent 
them. When the resolution in question appeared in the plat- 
form, Mr. Blair, understanding it, placed his resignation in 
the hands of the President, who delayed his acceptance of it 
until circumstances rendered the step desirable. v 

Washington was but a short distance from Baltimore ; and 
Governor Dennison, the president of the convention, waited 
upon Mr. Lincoln, accompanied by a committee, to inform 
him of his nomination. After receiving the formal address of 
that gentleman, with a copy of the resolutions which had 
been adopted, Mr. Lincoln said: 

" Having served four years in the depths of a great and yet unended 
national peril, I can view this call to a second term in nowise more flat- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 475 

tering to myself than as an expression of the public judgment that I 
may better finish a difficult work, in which I have labored from the first, 
than could any one less severely schooled to the task. In this view, 
and with assured reliance on that Almighty Ruler who has so graciously 
sustained us thus far, and with increased gratitude to the generous peo- 
ple for their continued confidence, I accept the renewed trust, with its 
yet onerous and perplexing duties and responsibilities." 

During the same day, the President was waited upon by a 
committee of the Union League, which came with a tender 
of the congratulations, and a pledge of the confidence and 
support, of that organization ; and, in the evening, by the Ohio 
delegation in the convention. To both these deputations he 
addressed brief remarks, in the spirit of those quoted as ad- 
dressed to the committee of the convention. Some days sub- 
sequently, he received the formal notification, by letter, of his 
nomination, to which, on the twenty-seventh of June, he re- 
plied as follows: 

"Gentlemen: — Your letter of the fourteenth inst., formally notifying 
me that I have been nominated by the convention you represent for the 
Presidency of the United States, for four years from the fourth of March 
next, has been received. The nomination is gratefully accepted, as the 
resolutions of the convention, called the platform, are heartily approved. 
While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of republican gov- 
ernments upon the Western Continent is fully concurred in, there 
might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of the 
government in relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed 
through the State Department, and indorsed by the convention among 
the measures and acts of the Executive, will be faithfully maintained 
so long as the state of facts shall leave that position pertinent and ap- 
plicable. I am especially gratified that the soldier and seaman were not 
forgotten by the convention, as they forever must and will be remem- 
bered by the grateful country, for whose salvation they devote their 
lives, 

"Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in which you 
have communicated the nomination and other proceedings of the con- 
vention, I subscribe myself, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" Abraham Lincoln." 

It was still more than two months before the assembling of 
the Democratic Convention, announced to be held at Chicago 



476 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

on the twenty-ninth of August. This convention had been 
deferred, with the confident expectation, if not the hope, that 
the events of the war would prepare the people to accept a 
peace policy, and leave the party free to take direct issue with 
the administration. During' this interval, a peculiar change 
came over the spirit of the friends of Mr. Lincoln. Opening 
the campaign with perfect confidence concerning the results, 
a feeling of distrust and doubt crept over them ; and. without 
any apparent cause, the thought became prevalent that a mis- 
take had been made in the nomination. This arose partly 
from the consciousness that the country was really tired of a 
war of which they saw neither the end nor the signs of its 
approach; and partly from the uncertainty which prevailed 
concerning the action of the Democratic Convention, which 
was pretty sure to be based upon the results of military move- 
ments in progress, and of dubious issue. It was one of those 
strange and unaccountable contagions of public feeling and 
opinion which start, no man knows where ; lead, no man 
knows whither; and die, at last, by no man's hand. Men 
did not catch it from newspapers, did not contract it from 
speeches, did not imbibe or absorb it in facts ; but, simultane- 
ously and universally, the friends of the administration were 
affected with a distrust of the future and a doubt of the wis- 
dom of their choice. 

There were still divisions in their ranks, but these were not 
formidable. Occasion was taken by the opposition press to 
magnify every mistake of the President and to condemn every 
doubtful measure. One Arguelles, convicted in Cuba of sell- 
ing part of a cargo of negroes, illicitly landed, which, as an 
officer of the Spanish army, he had captured, was permitted to 
be taken from New York, and carried back to the island. 
This act — a thoroughly righteous one in the light of humanity 
and justice — was regarded by the opposition as a denial of 
the right of asylum; and a good deal of disturbance was 
created by it. 

Early in July, Congress completed its action upon a plan 
of reconstruction, which it embodied in an elaborate bill. In 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 477 

the preparation of this bill, Henry Winter Davis of Maryland 
and Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio were prominently active. 
A good deal of time and discussion had been expended upon 
it, but it was passed and sent to the President less than one 
hour before the close of the session. lie failed to approve it, 
and, on the eighth of duly, issued a proclamation on the sub- 
ject. In this proclamation, the President declared that he was 
unprepared, by a formal approval of the bill, to commit him- 
self to any single plan of reconstruction, or to set aside the 
free state governments already formed in Arkansas and Lou- 
isiana on other plans. At the same time, he was willing that 
the plan embodied in the bill should be recognized as one 
among others ; and so promulgated the bill itself, as a part of 
his proclamation. To the people of any rebel state who should 
adopt the plan provided by the bill, he pledged the executive 
assistance. The action of the President in this matter ex- 
ceedingly offended Messrs. Wade and Davis, who joined in a 
bitter manifesto against him, and published it in the New 
York Tribune of August- fifth. "The President," they de- 
clared, "by preventing this bill from becoming a law, holds 
the electoral votes of the rebel states at the dictation of his 
personal ambition." Furthermore: " A more studied outrage 
on the legislative authority of the people, has never been per- 
petrated." In its attack upon Mr. Lincoln's motives, it was 
an offensive paper, and pained the friends of the administration 
no less than it rejoiced its enemies. 

Mr. Lincoln, himself, never permitted attacks of this char- 
acter to trouble him. If they were very bitter, he did not 
read them at all ; and many men of mark who wrote things 
for his particular eye, failed of their object utterly by his 
refusal to read, or listen to, "their fulminations. After the 
Wade and Davis manifesto was issued, it was, on one occasion, 
the subject of conversation between him and a number of 
gentlemen who had called at the White House. After all 
the gentlemen had retired, save one, who was an intimate per- 
sonal friend, Mr. Lincoln turned to him, and said : " The 
Wade and Davis matter troubles me very little. Indeed, I 



478 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

feel a good deal about it as the old man did about his cheese, 
■when his very smart boy found, by the aid of a microscope, 
that it was full of maggots. ' Oh father! ' exclaimed the boy, 
'how can you eat that stuff? Just look in here, and see 'em 
wrifo-le ! ' The old man took another mouthful, and, putting 
his teeth into it, replied grimly: 'let 'em wriggle!" 

The evident anxiety of the people for peace was a subject 
of deep solicitude with the administration. Mr. Lincoln had 
no faith in the desire of the Eichmond government for any 
peace which would be accepted by the loyal people of the 
country. It was, however, for the interest of the rebels to 
create a peace party in the northern states, in order to weaken 
the administration ; and it was their policy to appear to be 
ready to make or receive propositions for peace. There were 
two things to which the administration was, in all good faith, 
irrevocably committed, viz : the restoration of the Union un- 
der the Constitution, and the abolition of slavery. Without 
beino- false to his oath of office and to the American people 
who had poured out life and treasure to save the nation, and 
without being faithless to an oppressed race to whom he had 
pledged emancipation, Mr. Lincoln could entertain no propo- 
sitions for peace, and could make none, which were not based 
on the essential conditions of national unity and freedom to 
the blacks. This state of facts tied his hands ; yet he was 
made by his enemies to appear to be averse to peace ; and 
some of his friends, of the more timid sort, felt that, unless he 
could be placed in a different light before the people, his 
chances of re-election were slender. 

On the fifth of July, one W. C. Jewett wrote a letter from 
Niagara Falls to Horace Greeley of New York, stating that 
there were, in Canada, two ambassadors of the rebel govern- 
ment, with full powers to negotiate a peace ; and requesting 
that Mr. Greeley proceed to Niagara for a conference, or se- 
cure from the President a safe-conduct for them to New York. 
,Mr. Greeley inclosed the letter to Mr. Lincoln, remarking that 
he thought the matter deserved attention. He also wrote : " I 
venture to remind you that our bleeding, bankrupt, almost 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 479 

dying country, longs for peace — shudders at the prospect of 
fresh conscriptions, of further wholesale devastations, and of 
new rivers of human blood; and a wide-spread conviction 
that the government and its supporters are not anxious for 
peace, and do not improve proffered opportunities to achieve 
it, is doing great harm now, and is morally certain, unless re- 
moved, to do far greater in the approaching elections." Mr. 
Greeley subjoined to his letter a plan of adjustment which he 
deemed proper and practicable, the first two items of which 
covered the restoration of the Union and the abolition of slav- 
ery. Certainly, if these were leading and essential parts of 
the plan, it could make no difference whether they were made 
conditions precedent to negotiation, or essentials in any ad- 
justment to be procured by negotiation. 

The President replied to this communication, on the ninth : 
" If you can find any person, anywhere, professing to have any 
proposition of Jefferson Davis, in writing, embracing the res- 
toration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever 
else it embraces, say to him that he may come to me with you." 
On the thirteenth of July, Mr. Greeley wrote to the President, 
stating that he had information upon which he could rely, that 
two persons, duly commissioned and empowered to negotiate 
for a peace, were not far from Niagara Falls, and were desirous 
to confer with the President, or such persons as he might ap- 
point. Their names were Clement C. Clay of Alabama and 
Jacob Thompson of Mississippi. If these persons could be 
permitted to see Mr. Lincoln, they wished a safe-conduct for 
themselves and for George N. Saunders to Washington. In 
the course of the letter, Mr. Greeley said: "I am, of course, 
quite other than sanguine that a peace can now be made ; but 
I am quite sure that a frank, earnest, anxious effort to termi- 
nate the war on honorable terms, would immensely strengthen 
the government in case of its failure, and would help us in the 
eyes of the civilized world." George N. Saunders wrote to 
Mr. Greeley on the twelfth, that he was authorized to say that 
Mr. Clay and Professor Holcombe of Virginia were ready, 
with himself, to go to Washington, provided they should have 



480 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

a safe-conduct. To Mr. Greeley's letter of the thirteenth, Mr. 
Lincoln replied on the fifteenth: U I am disappointed that you 
have not already reached here with those commissioners. If 
they would consent to come on being shown my letter to you 
of the ninth inst., show that and this to them ; and, if they 
will consent to come on the terms stated in the former, bring 
them. I not only intend a sincere effort for peace, but I intend 
that you shall be a personal. witness that it is made." This 
note was taken to Mr. Greeley by Major Hay, who, having 
been empowered by telegraph to write a safe-conduct for the 
commissioners, embraced in his paper the names of Messrs. 
Clay, Thompson, Holcombe, and Saunders. "With this, Mr. 
Greeley started for Niagara Falls, and, on arriving there on 
the seventeenth, addressed to the first three of these gentlemen, 
at the Clifton House, on the Canada side of the river, a note, 
stating that he was informed that they were duly accredited 
from Richmond as the bearers of propositions looking to the 
establishment of peace ; that he understood, also, that they 
desired to visit Washington in the fulfillment of their mission, 
and that they wished George N. Saunders to accompany 
them. If these were the facts, he declared himself authorized 
by the President to offer them a safe-conduct and to accom- 
pany them. 

On the following day, this note was replied to by Messrs. 
Clay and Holcombe, who frankly acknowledged that the safe- 
conduct of the President had been offered under a misappre- 
hension of facts. They were not accredited from Eichmond 
at all, as the bearers of propositions looking to the establish- 
ment of peace. They professed, however, to be in the confi- 
dential employ of their government, and to be familiar with its 
wishes and opinions on the subject; and they declared that, if 
the circumstances disclosed in the correspondence were com- 
municated to Eichmond, they, or others, would at once be 
invested with the requisite authority to negotiate. It should 
be remembered, at this point, that these men had not been 
made fully acquainted with the conditions on which the Pres- 
ident had offered them a safe-conduct. Mr. Greeley had evi- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 481 

dent!y forgotten to inform them concerning the terms of Mr. 
Lincoln's letter of the ninth, in which he promised a safe- 
conduct only to those who should be duly accredited with 
propositions for peace, conditioned upon the restoration of 
the Union and the abolition of slavery. These, it must be 
remembered, were the original and unaltered conditions on 
which Mr. Lincoln had consented to receive them. 

Mr. Greeley replied to Messrs. (lay and Ilolcombe, on the 
eighteenth, that the state of facts differed materially from Mr. 
Lincoln's understanding of them, and that he should telegraph 
for fresh instructions, which he did at once. On receiving 
the dispatch, Mr. Lincoln sent Majpr Hay to Niagara, with 
the following letter: 

"Executive Mansion, "Washington, July 18th, 1864. 
"To whom it may concern: — 

" Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the 
integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and 
which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies now 
at war against the United States, will be received and considered by 
the Executive government of the United States, and will be met on lib- 
eral terms on substantial and collateral points; and the bearer or bear- 
ers thereof shall have safe-conduct both ways. 

"Abraham Lincoln." 

Major Hay, on his arrival at Niagara, went with Mr. Gree- 
ley to the Clifton House, and delivered the above missive to 
Professor Holcombe. Then Mr. Greeley returned to New 
York, where he soon afterwards received the response of 
Messrs. Clay and Holcombe. Their letter was exactly what 
might have been expected. They had supposed that a safe- 
conduct had been offered them on the ground that they were 
"duly accredited from Richmond, as bearers of propositions 
looking to the establishment of peace ; " and, when they found 
conditions insisted on precedent to negotiation, they could see 
only a " sudden and entire change in the views of the Presi- 
dent," and a "rude withdrawal of a courteous overture for 
negotiation, at the moment it was likely to be accepted." It 
will be noticed by the reader that the President had made no 
31 



482 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

change whatever in his conditions from those first offered, and 
that the letter of Clay and Holcombe left him in a false posi- 
tion. Nothing appears in the correspondence, thus far pub- 
lished, to show that Mr. Greeley ever communicated to the 
commissioners the President's original conditions for a safe- 
conduct and an interview. 

In order to place himself in a just position before the coun- 
try, Mr. Lincoln applied to Mr. Greeley for permission to 
publish the entire correspondence, omitting certain unessential 
passages in Mr. Greeley's letters, which represented the coun- 
try as being on the verge of destruction, intimated the pos- 
sibility of a northern insurrection, and alluded to the impor- 
tance of affecting favorably the North Carolina election. Mr. 
Greeley refused to have the correspondence published, unless 
these passages, which Mr. Lincoln thought would have a mis- 
chievous effect upon the public mind, should be retained. For 
the sake of the country and its cause, Mr. Lincoln submitted ; 
but, determined to stand right in history, he sent a note to 
Henry J. Raymond, editor of the New York Times, under 
date of August 15, 1864, as follows : 

"My Dear Sir: — I have proposed to Mr. Greeley that the Niagara 
correspondence be published, suppressing only the parts of his letters 
over which the red pencil is drawn in the copy which I herewith send. 
lie declines fivinc his consent to the publication of his letters, unless 
these parts be published with the rest. I have concluded that it is bet- 
ter for me to submit, for the time, to the consequences of the false po- 
sition in which I consider he has placed me, than to subject the country 
to the consequences of publishing these discouraging and injurious 
parts. I send you this, and the accompanying copy, not for publication, 
but merely to explain to you, and that you preserve them until their 

proper time shall come. 

" Yours truly, 

" Abraham Lincoln." 

So Mr. Lincoln went through the canvass with the imputa- 
tion resting upon him of having pursued a vacillating course 
with the unaccredited and irresponsible commissioners, and of 
repelling negotiations for peace. All the capital that could 
be made against him from the materials furnished by the affair, 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 483 

was assiduously used by the opposition and by the rebels 
themselves. 

The time for holding the National Democratic Convention 
came at last. Still the fortunes of the military campaign 
were undecided ; and the country was groaning under efforts 
to furnish men for the reinforcement of the armies. But the 
President found aid in unexpected quarters. By the direction 
of that Providence in which he so implicitly believed, every 
treasonable and personally inimical clement in the nation be- 
came his ally. Mr. Vallandigham had returned to the coun- 
try before his time ; and the President permitted him to re- 
main, unmolested. He became one of the pets of his party; 
and, attending the Chicago Convention as a delegate, was 
chosen chairman of the committee on resolutions. Gov- 
ernor Seymour of New York, his sympathizing friend, was 
the president of the convention. Congressman Long of 
Ohio was also there, with a full representation of all those 
who had, from the first, opposed the war, and sympathized 
with the rebellion. The platform adopted was composed 
largely of negations, touching the policy of the administra- 
tion; but one thing it distinctly demanded, viz: "a cessa- 
tion of hostilities." The candidates nominated were General 
George B. McClellan for President, and George H. Pendle- 
ton of Ohio for Vice-President. General McClellan was 
nominally a war democrat, and Mr. Pendleton really a peace 
democrat. Both wings of the party were thus accommodated, 
while the platform was all that the most extreme of peace 
men could ask. But the convention did not dissolve ; it ad- 
journed, " subject to be called at any time and place that the 
executive national committee shall designate." The act was 
a threat, and betrayed the entertainment of possibilities and 
incidental purposes not entirely creditable to the patriotism of 
the convention. Mr. Vallandigham's tongue was busy, in and 
out of the convention. He was treated as a man who had 
suffered persecution for the sake of democratic truth. He 
moved that the nomination of McClellan be made unanimous. 
He was active in all the affairs of the occasion; and he did 



484 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

more than any other man to destroy the prospects of the 
democratic party. 

The spirit manifested by the demagogues who managed this 
convention, was not the spirit of the people, and not the spirit 
of the democratic masses. The majority of the democratic 
party had supported the war. Many of the best officers in 
the army were democrats, thoroughly devoted to the destruc- 
tion of the rebellion by military means. The voice of the con- 
vention was, that all that had been expended in the war, of 
life and treasure, should be declared a waste. The best illus- 
tration of the spirit of the convention was found in the fact 
that, when it was announced that Fort Morgan had surren- 
dered, the news fell upon it like a pall. It awoke no cheers ; 
and was so evidently unwelcome intelligence, although a great 
national success, that the masses of the party were disgusted. 

Whatever may have been the acts, intentions and spirit of 
the convention, this one thing was certain : that, from the time 
of its adjournment, no sensible politician had any doubt of 
the overwhelming triumph of the administration in the elec- 
tion. The cloud was lifted from the republican party at once ; 
and the democratic leaders themselves, though they relaxed no 
effort, confessed that they were beaten, almost from the start. 

On the twenty-third of September, Mr. Blair retired from 
the cabinet, in consequence of an intimation from the Presi- 
dent that his retirement would be a relief to him. It will be 
remembered that the Baltimore platform contained a resolu- 
tion which was intended to indicate a desire on the part of the 
convention that Mr. Blair should leave the cabinet ; but Mr. 
Lincoln did not, probably, have any reference to this resolution 
in his action. Mr. Blair had made an excellent Postmaster- 
general — one of the very best who had administered the af- 
fairs of his department ; and it was Mr. Lincoln's policy to 
adhere to his friends, and especially to those who did their 
duty. But there was a difficulty between Mr. Blair and 
Henry Winter Davis of Maryland, which, in Mr. Lincoln's 
judgment, endangered the adoption of the free state constitu- 
tion in that commonwealth. He could solve the difficulty, 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 485 

and help the cause, by permitting Mr. Blair, whose resigna- 
tion had been in his hands for months, to retire. The Presi- 
dent and the Secretary parted excellent friends; and Mr. 
Lincoln showed his good will toward the retiring officer, by ap- 
pointing to his place ex-Governor William Dennison of Ohio, 
one of Mr. Blair's most intimate personal and family Mends. 
A few days before this change in the cabinet, Mr. Lincoln 
wrote a letter to a convention of the friends of the new con- 
stitution in Maryland, held in Baltimore on the eighteenth of 
September, in which he expressed his earnest solicitude for its 
adoption. ''It needs not be a secret," said he, "and I presume 
it is no secret, that I wish success to this provision." (The 
provision extinguishing slavery). "I desire it on every con- 
sideration. I wish to see all men free. I wish the national 
prosperity of the already free, which I feel sure the extinction 
of slavery would bring." The event he so much desired was 
consummated by a popular vote, on the eighth and ninth of 
October; and the President was serenaded by the loyal Mary- 
landers in Washington, as an expression of their satisfaction 
and their congratulations. Mr. Lincoln responded with a 
speech. An extract will show something of the subjects of 
public discussion at the time, as well as reveal the President's 
relation to them: 

'• Something said by the Secretary of State, in his recent speech at 
Auburn, has been construed by some into a threat that, if I shall be 
beaten at the election, I will, between then and the constitutional end 
of my term, do what I may be able, to ruin the government. Others re- 
gard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned not sine die, but 
to meet again, if called to do so by a particular individual, as the inti- 
mation of a purpose that, if their nominee shall be elected, he will at 
once seize control of the government. I hope the good people will per- 
mit themselves to suffer no uneasiness on either point. I am struggling 
to maintain the government, not to overthrow it. I am strugglino- 
specially to prevent others from overthrowing it. I, therefore, say that. 
if I live, I shall remain President until the fourth of next March, and 
that whoever shall be constitutionally elected in November shall be 
duly installed as President on the fourth of March; and, in the interval, 
I shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next 
voyage, shall start with the best possible chance of saving the ship." 



486 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The October elections indicated the inevitable result of 
the presidential canvass ; and the successful movements of the 
ax*mies confirmed the prospects of Mr. Lincoln's signal tri- 
umph. The efforts of the rebels south of the Union lines, 
and over the Canada boundary, to assist the peace party, and 
furnish capital for its operations, aided by organizations of 
disloyal elements within the loyal states, not only failed of 
their object, but helped to rally the popular feeling to the side 
of the administration. 

An unpleasant incident of the canvass was the result of an 
interview between Mr. Lincoln and a committee of the oppo- 
sition party in Tennessee. Andrew Johnson, the present 
President of the United States, was then military governor 
of that state ; and under his sanction a convention was called, 
to reorganize the state, that it might take a part in the pres- 
idential election. This convention prescribed the form of an 
oath, that the body deemed proper for those to take who de- 
sired to vote. Governor Johnson ordered the election to be 
held, in accordance with the plan of the convention; and 
adopted its oath. The oath was one which no heartily loyal 
man would refuse to take, unless he should object to the fol- 
lowing clause; "I will cordially oppose all armistices and ne- 
gotiations for peace with rebels in arms, until the Constitution 
of the United States, and all laws and proclamations made in 
pursuance thereof, shall be established over all the people of 
every state and territory, embraced within the national Union." 
No man, of course, who heartily believed in the peace doctrine 
of the Chicago platform could take the oath ; and there were 
evidently many men in Tennessee who would not subscribe to 
another clause — men who could not heartily say: "I sincerely 
rejoice in the triumph of the armies and navies of the Unitecf 
States." 

Against this oath, a committee of General McClellan's 
friends protested ; and they bore their protest to the President. 
Mr. Lincoln did not receive the paper good-naturedly. He 
undoubtedly regarded it as an attempt to get him into diffi- 
culty, and to make political capital against him. He had no 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 487 

faith in the genuine loyalty of the men who would not take 
the oath. lie furthermore felt that it was a matter with 
which he had no right to interfere, and believed it to be one 
which Mr. John Lellyett, the bearer of the protest, knew he 
would not undertake to control. Under these circumstances, 
and in the condition of nervous and mental irritability, to 
which all the latter part of his life was subject, he gave a 
reply which was not at all in his usual manner, and which 
pained his friends quite as much as it rejoiced his foes. The 
answer, as reported by Air.. Lellyett, was : " I expect to let the 
friends of George B. McClellan manage their side of this con- 
test in their own way, and I will manage my side of it in my 
way." The committee asked for an answer in writing. "Not 
now," replied Mr. Lincoln. "Lay those papers down here. 
I will give no other answer now. I may or may not write 
something about this hereafter. I know you intend to make 
a point of this. But go ahead; you have my answer." 

Now this was unquestionably an undignified and injudi- 
cious reply — one which the people would not receive with 
any consideration of the irritable mood in which it was ut- 
tered, or the provocation, real or supposed, which inspired it. 
Under date of October twenty-second, he made a reply in 
writing. His conclusion was that he could have nothino- to 
do with the matter. The action of the convention and of 
Governor Johnson was nothing which had been inspired by 
the national Executive. The Governor, he believed, had the 
right to favor any plan he might choose to favor, which had 
been adopted by the loyal citizens of Tennessee ; and the Pres- 
ident could not see, in the plan adopted, " any menace, or vio- 
lence, or coercion towards any one." If the people should 
vote for president, under this plan, it would neither belong to 
the President, nor yet to the military Governor of Tennessee, 
to say whether the vote should be received and counted, but 
to a department of the government to which, under the Con- 
stitution, it was given, to decide. So, "except to give pro- 
tection against violence," he declined to have anything to do 
with any presidential election. The result was the withdrawal 



488 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of the McClellan ticket in that state, and renewed charges 
affainst the President of interfering in elections, with which 
he had thus refused to interfere. 

No headway could be made, however, against Mr. Lincoln. 
The issue was too plain. Yet it is but just to say that it is 
doubtful whether the success of the McClellan ticket would 
have produced an immediate armistice. Results in a military 
point of view were too plainly in our hands, and the country 
was too thoroughly committed to the war for the re-establish- 
ment of the Union, to permit so disgraceful and ruinous a 
proceeding. But the democratic party had consented to place 
itself in the position it occupied, for the sake of winning 
power ; and, when the people saw such men as Wood, and 
Long, and Pendleton, and Vallandigham, all pushing the for- 
tunes of the democratic candidate, they lost faith in the party, 
and determined to support the administration, its policy, and 
its candidates. In the meantime, Grant, Sherman and Sheri- 
dan were leading on their victorious armies, and the political 
voice of these armies was almost unanimous for the republican 
nominees. 

Before taking leave of the canvass, to record its results, it 
is simple justice to Mr. Lincoln to place by the side of the 
Tennessee case, his call for five hundred thousand men, made 
on the eighteenth of July, to be drafted after the fifth of 
September, if they should not be furnished previous to that 
date. His friends urged that the measure would be unpop- 
ular, and that it might cost him his election. His reply to 
'every representation of this kind was that the men were 
needed, that it was his duty to call for them, and that he 
should call for them, whatever the effect might be upon him- 
self. Does any one believe that a man who could treat a 
great question like this so nobly and patriotically, would busy 
himself with small politics in Tennessee, or connive with any 
small politicians there, in a scheme for cheating patriotic men 
out of votes, for his own advantage ? 

The day of election came at last, and resulted in an over- 
whelming majority of votes for Abraham Lincoln. Every 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 489 

state that voted, except three, gave majorities for the republi- 
can candidates, and two of these three were old slave states — 
Kentucky and Delaware. Only Nvw Jersey among the 
northern states gave its vote tin- McClellan. West Virginia, 
Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana supported Mi - . Lincoln. 
The time had come, at last, of which he had spoken in 
Cooper Institute, more than four years before, when the 
republican party had ceased to be sectional, by obtaining .sup- 
port in the southern states. Mr. Lincoln's clear popular ma- 
jority was 411,428, in a total vote of 4,015,902, which secured 
212 of the 233 votes in the electoral college. 

The President might well feel gratified with this result. 
His policy, motives, character and achievements had received 
the emphatic approval of the American people. "I am thank- 
ful to God for this approval of the people," said he, on the 
night of his election, to a band of Pcnnsylvanians who had 
called upon him; and he added: "But, while deeply grateful 
for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my 
gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do 
not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no 
pleasure to me to triumph over any one ; but I give thanks to 
the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to 
stand by free government, and the rights of humanity." 

The election proved more than Mr. Lincoln's popularity; 
and this he understood. In subsequent remarks to the friendly 
political clubs of the District, he said; "It has demonstrated 
that a people's government can sustain a national election in 
the midst of a great civil Avar. Until now, it has not been 
known to the world that this was a possibility. It shows, 
also, how strong and sound we still arc. * * * It shows, also, 
to the extent yet known, that we have more men now, than 
we had when the Avar began. Gold is good in its place ; but 
living, brave and patriotic men are better than gold." To a 
friend he said: "Being only mortal, after all, I shoukl have 
been a little mortified if I had been beaten in this canvass 
before the people ; but that sting would have been more than 
compensated by the thought that the people had notified mo 



490 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



that all my official responsibilities were soon to be lifted off 
my back." 

The election of Mr. Lincoln destroyed the last hope of the 
rebellion. There was to be no change of policy ; and none 
could know better than the rebel leaders that that policy could 
not be long resisted. These leaders were little inclined to 
make peace; and it is doubtful whether their people would 
have permitted them to do so. They had promised their peo- 
ple independence ; and the latter had fought with wonderful 
bravery and persistency for it. There was no way but to fight 
on, until the inevitable defeat should come. 

For many days after the result of the election was known, 
Mr. Lincoln was burdened with congratulations; and yet, 
amid these disturbances, and the cares of office, which were 
onerous in the extreme, he found time to write the following 
letter: 

"Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov. 21, 1864. 

"Dear Madam: — I have been shown, in the files of the War Depart- 
ment, a statement of the Adjutant-general of Massachusetts, that you 
are the mother of five sons, who have died gloriously on the field of 
battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which 
should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. 
But 1 cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be 
found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that o~ 
Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and 
leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the sol- 
emn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the 
altar of freedom. 

" Yours very sincerely and respectfully, 

"Abraham Lincoln. 

" To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts." 

From the day of the election to the close of the rebellion, 
the discordant political elements of the northern states sub- 
sided into silence and inaction. The election itself was at- 
tended with great dignity — almost, indeed, with solemnity. 
Men felt that they were deciding something more than a party 
question, and acted with reference to their responsibilities to 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 491 

God and their country. The masses of the democratic party 
were more than satisfied with (lie result; and such of their 
leaders as were thoroughly loyal undoubtedly felt that a vic- 
tory to them, under all the circumstances, would have been, in 
many respects, a misfortune. Among the subjects of national 
thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November — the day of 
Mr. Lincoln's appointment — certainly the result of the elec- 
tion w T as not least to be considered, or last to be remembered 
with devout gratitude. 



CHAPTEK XXVIII. 

The military operations of 1864 were of the most moment- 
ous importance. It was a year of intense activity in every 
department ; and, although there were great miscarriages and 
serious and perplexing disasters, the grand results were such 
as to show to the people of the whole country that the end 
was not far off, and that that end would leave the rebellion 
hopeless and helpless at the feet of the national power. Al- 
though the principal interest was attached to the operations 
of the two grand armies under Grant and Sherman, there 
were minor movements of subsidiary bodies, which attracted 
considerable attention. 

Early in February, an expedition under General Gillmore's 
direction, for clearing Florida of insurgent forces, so as to en- 
able the Union elements of the state to reorganize, resulted 
in a failure. At the same time, Sherman, proceeding from 
Vicksburg, with a strong infantry force, and General Smith, 
starting from Memphis, with a heavy force of cavalry, un- 
dertook a joint movement for the purpose of destroying rebel 
supplies and communications ; but they failed in their plan 
of forming a junction, though they were quite successful in 
their work of destruction. Later in the month, Kilpatrick 
made his bold and dashing raid upon Eichmond, blowing up 
the locks of the Kanawha canal, cutting railways and tele- 
graphs, and penetrating within the outer defenses of the rebel 
capital. In March, the disastrous Eed Eiver expedition of 
General Banks occurred. Much damage was done to the 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 493 

rebels, and more was received by ourselves. In April, Fort 
Pillow was captured from us; and here occurred one of the 
most shocking outrages of the Avar, already incidentally, al- 
luded to in these pages. Some three hundred negro troops, 
with women and children, were murdered in cold blood, after 
they had surrendered. The white officers of these troops 
shared their cruel fate ; and the event was greeted with ap- 
proval by rebel newspapers. The history of war is illustra- 
ted by no deed of blacker barbarism than this. It filled the 
country with horror, and inspired a universal demand for re- 
taliation. Mr. Lincoln, who was as deeply touched as any 
one, promised retaliation publicly; but it was never inflicted. 
Late in the spring, the western army, under Sherman, con- 
fronted Johnston at Chattanooga. The army of the Potomac, 
immediately under General Meade, faced Lee in Virginia. 
Both sides had gathered every available man for the last great 
trial of arms. Lieutenant-general Grant perfected his plans, 
and, after visiting the western army, and consulting with Sher- 
man, he returned to the east, and took the general direction 
of military affairs. Everything was given into his hands; 
and he was supplied with all the men and material that were 
desired. "The particulars of your plans," said the President 
to him in a letter, " I neither know, nor seek to know. You 
are vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish 
not to obtrude any restraints nor constraints upon you." 
General Grant's response to this note of Mr. Lincoln was 
evidently not given in ignorance of the charges which had so 
freely been made, by political enemies of the administration, 
that our generals were interfered with by the President and 
the Secretary of War. "Fran my first entrance into the 
volunteer service of my country to the present day," said he, 
" I have never had cause of complaint. * * * Indeed, since 
the promotion which placed me in command of all the armies, 
and in view of the great responsibility and importance of suc- 
cess, I have been astonished at the readiness with which every- 
thing asked for has been yielded, without even an explanation 
beino; asked." 



494 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Everything having been made ready, the two armies moved, 
at the opening of May, to the work that lay before them. On 
Tuesday night, May third, the army of the Potomac crossed 
the Rapidan ; and on Thursday that series of actions was be- 
gun which will be known in history as "The Battles of the 
Wilderness." Thousands and tens of thousands of brave 
men fell on both sides ; but the rebel general was obliged, 
from day to day, to fall back from his carefully prepared de- 
fenses, to save his communications ; while Grant flanked him 
by a series of swift and daring swoops of his gigantic force, 
until Lee found himself and his army in Richmond. In co- 
operation with these movements of Grant's army, General 
Butler pushed up the James River with a large force, and se- 
cured and held City Point and Bermuda Hundred. This was 
his principal work ; but he undertook various diversions with- 
out remarkable results. 

It was not until the middle of June that the army reached 
the James River, and commenced the siege of Petersburgh, 
which was destined to ultimate in the downfall of the re- 
bellion. 

General Sherman pursued the strategy adopted by his su- 
perior. He had a larger army than Johnston, but Johnston 
had the advantage of strong positions and a knowledge of 
the country. He also moved toward his supplies, while 
Sherman left his behind him. The federal General flanked 
Johnston out of his works at Buzzard's Roost ; and then, fight- 
ing and flanking, from day to day, he drove him from Dalton 
to Atlanta. Then Johnston was superseded by Hood, and 
Hood assumed the offensive. In three days of bloody battle, 
the new commander lost half of his army ; and then he was 
glad to get behind the defenses of Atlanta. Here he remained 
more than a month, besieged. In the endeavor to escape from 
the toils which Sherman was weaving around him, he found 
himself at last thoroughly outgeneraled, and was obliged to 
run. Atlanta fell into our hands, on the second of September. 
Then Hood, a rash and desperate officer, set off to break up 
Sherman's communications ; and, finding himself thoroughly 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 495 

whipped, started for a grand march to Nashville, where he 
hoped to find repayment for the losses and disgraces he had 
suffered. Sherman sent back to General Thomas, who had 
been left in command there, a portion of his army, and much 
of his material of Avar; and then he turned his back on Hood, 
for a march to the sea-coast. 

This march, one of the most remarkable in the history of 
war, was called by the rebels a retreat. It was begun on the 
twelfth of November; and, leaving behind supplies and all 
means of communication, the gallant host started for the At- 
lantic. The most frantic efforts were made by the rebels to 
check the progress of the redoubtable army. Small forces 
hovered in front, in flank, and in rear, but nothing impeded 
its march. It was a gala-day affair, the soldiers supporting 
themselves upon the country through which they passed. On 
the eighth of December, the army arrived within twenty miles 
of Savannah. On the fourteenth, Fort McAllister was taken ; 
and, on the same day, communication was opened with the 
federal fleet, sent to co-operate and bear supplies. The army 
had reached a new base ; and had reached it without a single 
disaster. Savannah was occupied immediately, the rebel 
troops retreating and escaping. On the next day after Fort 
McAllister fell, Thomas defeated Hood in Tennessee, and sent 
him back, with his army cut in pieces and ruined. 

In the meantime, Sheridan had whipped Early in the Shen- 
andoah valley, in a series of brilliant engagements; and, al- 
though there had been raids of rebel cavalry across the Poto- 
mac, and panics and alarms in various quarters, the 1st of 
January, 1865, found the Union cause much advanced, and 
the rebels weakened and despondent. Sherman was at Sa- 
vannah, organizing for another movement up the coast ; Hood 
was crushed; Early's army was destroyed; Price, too, had 
been routed in Missouri ; Canby was operating for the capture 
of Mobile ; and Grant, with the grip of a bull-dog, held Lee 
in Richmond, while all these great movements in other parts 
of the country were in progress. 

There was discord in the counsels of the rebels. They be- 



496 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

gan to talk of using the negroes as soldiers. The command- 
in^ general demanded this measure ; and, at last, the singular 
spectacle was exhibited of a slaveholders' rebellion, under- 
taken to make slavery perpetual, calling upon the slaves 
themselves for help. But the call for help came too late, even 
had it been addressed to more promising sources. Lee was 
tied, and Sherman was turning his steps toward him; and 
among the leaders of the rebellion there was a fearful looking- 
for of fatal disasters. 

Two changes occurred in Mr. Lincoln's cabinet during the 
year, in addition to that already noted in the post-office de- 
partment. Edward Bates of Missouri, the Attorney-general, 
left his post on the first of December, and was succeeded by 
James Speed of Kentucky. , Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the 
Treasury, resigned early in July. That this resignation was 
unexpected and unwelcome to Mr. Lincoln, was evident; but 
it was immediately accepted. There was probably some per- 
sonal feeling on both sides, into the causes of which there is 
no occasion to enter. The matter excited Mr. Lincoln very 
much— probably more than anything that concerned him per- 
sonally during his administration. He first appointed to the 
vacant office Governor David Todd of Ohio ; and, the appoint- 
ment being declined, he named Hon. William Pitt Fessenden 
of Maine. Mr. Fessenden was a gentleman in whom the 
country had full confidence; but, owing to his infirm health, 
he assumed the responsibilities of the place with great reluc- 
tance, and only after such an appeal from Mr. Lincoln as he 
could not resist. 

On the twelfth of October, Chief Justice Taney died; and 
the friends of Mr. Chase urged that gentleman at once as the 
proper man to be endowed with the responsibilities of that au- 
gust office. But Mr. Chase had his enemies, like all those who 
have achieved an equally prominent position. The antagonism 
between his friends and enemies was at once developed ; and 
Mr. Lincoln was approached with all the motives for and 
against the appointment. In this matter, Mr. Lincoln's habit 
of hearino- all the arguments in a case on which he had already 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 49T 

passed his judgment, was strikingly exhibited. Intimate 
friends of Mr. Lincoln declare that there never was a time 
during his administration when he did not intend to appoint 
Mr. Chase to this place, if it should be made vacant by any 
cause. To all arguments which related to Mr. Chase's fitness 
or unfitness for the office, the President lent a ready car; but 
he was exceedingly vexed with those who appealed to his self- 
ish resentments. There were not wanting men who tried to 
arouse his prejudices, by reporting unpleasant words that Mr. 
Chase was alleged to have uttered against the President; 
but this gossip was always offensive, because it supposed that 
he could be affected in his choice by selfish motives. To one 
man who accused Mr. Chase to him of having used the pat- 
ronage of his department to advance his own presidential 
prospects, he simply replied: "Well, Chase would make a 
pretty good president ; and, so far as I am concerned, I wish 
some one would take it off my hands." To another friend he 
remarked that there were two considerations that controlled 
him in this appointment: first, the man appointed should be an 
anti-slavery man on principle ; secondly, he should thoroughly 
understand the financial policy of the government. Mr. 
Chase's anti-slavery principles were universally acknowledged, 
and the financial policy of the government was his own. So, 
after, a delay that gave Mr. Chase's friends and enemies time 
to urge the points of their respective cases, Mr. Chase received 
the appointment ; and the country was no better satisfied with 
this disposition of the matter than was Mr. Lincoln himself. 

On the sixth of December, Mr. Lincoln sent in his annual 
message to Congress, which had assembled on the fifth. The 
document opened with a review of the position of foreign 
governments, and our relations to those governments. The 
President announced the ports of Norfolk, Fernandina and 
Pensacola to have been opened by proclamation. His view 
of the Arguelles case, which the opposition had made the 
subject of severe criticism, he gave in. the words: "For my- 
self, I have no doubt of the power and duty of the executive, 
under the law of nations, to exclude enemies of the human 
32 



498 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

race from an asylum in the United States. If Congress 
should think that proceedings in such cases lack the authority 
of law, or ought to be further regulated by it, I recommend 
that provision be made for effectually preventing foreign slave- 
traders from acquiring domicile and facilities for their criminal 
occupation in our country." Owing to raids into the states, 
planned in Canada by enemies of the United States harbored 
there, he announced that he had thought proper to give notice 
that, after the expiration of six months, the period condition- 
ally stipulated in the existing arrangements with Great Britain, 
the United States would hold themselves at liberty to increase 
their naval armament upon the lakes, if they should deem it 
necessary to do so. Increased taxation had benefited the 
revenue ; and the national banking system had proved to be ac- 
ceptable to capitalists and the people. The naval exhibit gave 
a total of 671 vessels, carrying 4,610 guns, which showed an 
increase, during the year, of 83 vessels and 167 guns. The 
whole cost of the immense squadrons that had been called 
into existence since the beginning of the war, was more than 
two hundred and thirty-eight millions of dollars. One matter 
the President spoke of with special interest, viz: the steady 
expansion of population, improvement, and governmental in- 
stitutions, over the new and unoccupied portions of the coun- 
try, notwithstanding the civil war. 

Mr. Lincoln thought fit to urge tne passage of an amend- 
ment to the Constitution, prohibiting slavery throughout the 
United States, notwithstanding the same Congress had killed 
the measure at its previous session. It may be stated here 
that Mr. Lincoln had contemplated this measure, and was 
ready for it long before Congress had come up to his position. 
Before even an allusion to this amendment had been publicly 
made, he talked about it with his friends, and was urged by one 
of them to become a leader in the movement. He replied 
that he had no ambition of that sort, but that he thought that 
the amendment ought to be made, and would be made. For 
himself, he was content to let others initiate the measure, and 
win the credit of it. But the matter had arrived at a new 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 499 

stage ; and, when he saw that his influence was really necessary 
to its consummation, he did not hesitate to exert it. 

Mr. Lincoln alluded to the lessons which had been taught 
by the presidential election. This election had proved the 
purpose of the people in the loyal states to maintain the in- 
tegrity of the Union. It had proved, too, that, although the 
waste of war had been great, there were actually more men 
in the Union than when the Avar began. There had been, 
during the three years and a half of war, an increase of nearly 
one hundred and fifty thousand voters, without counting the 
soldiers who, by the laws of their respective states, were not 
permitted to vote. With this fact in view, it was plain that 
the government could maintain its contest with the rebellion 
indefinitely, so far as the supply of men was concerned. Mr. 
Lincoln closed his message by remarking that the rebels could, 
at any moment, have peace, by laying down their arms, and 
submitting to the national authority, under the Constitution. 
In saying this, however, he did not mean to retract anything 
he had said about slavery. He would not retract his Eman- 
cipation Proclamation, nor return to slavery any man free by 
the terms of that proclamation. 

The most important measure effected by Congress at this 
session, was the passage of the amendment to the Constitution, 
abolishing slavery in all the states. It passed the House by 
more than the requisite two-thirds vote, having passed the 
Senate during the previous session. The event was hailed 
with great satisfaction by the friends of the administration; 
and only a few of the more virulent of the opposition were 
disaffected* by it. To the President, the measure was particu- 
larly gratifying ; and he took occasion to express his satisfac- 
tion to a crowd that gathered around the White House, im- 
mediately after its adoption. He said that it seemed to him 
to be the one thing necessary to the winding up of the whole 
difficulty. It completed and confirmed the work of his proc- 
lamation of emancipation. It needed only to be adopted by 
the votes of the states ; and he appealed to his auditors to go 
home, and see that work faithfully accomplished. 



500 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The figures which gave the result of the presidential elec- 
tion showed that the country was stronger in men than it was 
at the beginning of the war; and, as the call for five hundred 
thousand men, made in July, had failed to produce all the 
soldiers which the war, much longer protracted, would require, 
the President issued a call, on the nineteenth of December, for 
three hundred thousand more. 

A peace conference, procured by the voluntary and irre- 
sponsible agency of Mr. Francis P. Blair, was held on the 
steamer River Queen, in Hampton Eoads, on the 3d of Feb- 
ruary, 18G5, between President Lincoln and Mr. Seward, 
representing the government, and Messrs. Alexander H. 
Stephens, J. A. Campbell and R. M. T. Hunter, representing 
the rebel confederacy. It Avas an informal affair, entirely 
verbal in its conduct, and unproductive of results. The Pres- 
ident consented to become a party to the interview, on repre- 
sentations made by General Grant, who regarded at least two 
of the commissioners as very sincere in their desire for peace. 
In the conference, these commissioners favored a postponement 
of the question of separation, and mutual efforts of the two 
o-overnments toward some extrinsic policy for a season, so as 
to o-ive time for the passions of the people to cool. The armies, 
meantime, were to be reduced, and the intercourse between 
the people of the two sections to be resumed. This the Presi- 
dent considered as equivalent to an armistice or truce ; and he 
informed them that he could agree to no cessation of hostili- 
ties, except on the basis of a disbandment of the insurgent 
forces, and the recognition of the national authority through- 
out all the states of the Union. He also declared it impossi- 
ble to recede from his Emancipation Proclamation ; and in- 
formed the Richmond gentlemen that Congress had passed 
the constitutional amendment, prohibiting slavery ; stating, in 
addition, that the amendment would doubtless be perfected by 
the action of three-fourths of the states. There was an earn- 
est desire for peace on both sides, without a doubt ; but Mr. 
Lincoln could, with truth to himself and honor to his country, 
make peace only on certain essential conditions; while the 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 501 

hands of the commissioners were tied by the obstinacy which 
reigned in Richmond. 

The reports of the conversation at this conference are very 
meager, necessarily; but enough has been made public to 
show that some of the incidents were very interesting and 
somewhat amusing. The Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle has 
published an account of the conference, which is said to have 
been prepared under the eye of Mr. Stephens. This account 
states that Mr. Lincoln declared that, in his negotiations for 
peace, he could not recognize another government inside of the 
one of which he alone was President. "That," said he, 
"would be doing what you so long asked Europe to do in 
vain, and be resigning the only thing the Union armies are 
fighting for." To this, Mr. Hunter replied that the recogni- 
tion of Davis' power to make a treaty was the first and indis- 
pensable step to peace ; and, to illustrate his point, he referred 
to the correspondence between King Charles the First and 
his Parliament, as a reliable precedent of a constitutional ruler 
treating with rebels. The Chronicle's account says that at 
this point "Mr. Lincoln's face wore that indescribable ex- 
pression which generally preceded his hardest hits ; and he 
remarked : ' Upon questions of history, I must refer you to 
Mr. Seward, for he is posted in such things, and I do n't pro- 
fess to be ; but my only distinct recollection of the matter is 
that Charles lost his head.' " 

The President told his "little story," too, on this occasion, 
the best version of which is given in Mr. Carpenter's Remin- 
iscences. They were discussing the slavery question, when 
Mr. Hunter remarked that the slaves, always accustomed to 
work upon compulsion, under an overseer, would, if suddenly 
freed, precipitate not only themselves, but the entire society 
of the South*, into irremediable ruin. No work would be 
done, but blacks and whites would starve together. The 
President waited for Mr. Seward to answer the argument; 
but, as that gentleman hesitated, he said: "Mr. Hunter, 
you ought to know a great deal better about this matter 
than I, for you have always lived under the slave system. I 



502 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

can only say, in reply to your statement of the case, that it 
reminds me of a man out in Illinois, by the name of Case, 
who undertook, a few years ago, to raise a very large herd of 
ho^s. It was a great trouble to feed them; and how to get 
around this was a puzzle to him. At length, he hit upon the 
plan of planting an immense field of potatoes ; and, when they 
were sufficiently grown, he turned the whole herd into the 
field, and let them have full swing, thus saving not only the 
labor of feeding the hogs, but that also of digging the pota- 
toes! Charmed with his sagacity, he stood one day leaning 
qgainst the fence, counting his hogs, when a neighbor came 
along. ' Well, well,' said he, ' Mr. Case, this is all very fine. 
Your hogs are doing very well just now ; but you know out 
here in Illinois the frost comes early, and the ground freezes 
a foot deep. Then what are they going to do?' This was a 
view of the matter which Mr. Case had not taken into ac- 
count. Butchering time for hogs was away on in December 
or January. He scratched his head, and at length stammered : 
'Well, it may come pretty hard on their snouts, but I don't 
see but it will be root hog or dieP'''' 

It is not supposed that Mr. Lincoln hoped for more from 
this conference than he did from the Niagara Falls negotia- 
tions; but he was determined to show that he was ready 
for peace, on the only grounds that would satisfy the loyal 
people of the country. The result strengthened the faith 
of the people in him ; and the rebel President seized upon 
it to stir the ashes in the southern heart, in the vain hope to 
find fuel there which the long fire had left unconsumed. 

Congress adjourned by constitutional limitation on the third 
of March, although the Senate was at once convened in extra 
session, in accordance with a proclamation of the President. 

On the day of the adjournment of Congress, Mr. Lincoln's 
first term of office expired. Four years of bloody war had 
passed away — four years marked by the most marvelous 
changes in the spirit, position, feelings, principles and institu- 
tions of the American people. The great system of wrong, 
out of which the rebellion had sprung, was in rapid process 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 503 

of dissolution, and already beyond the reach of resuscitation. 
The government had passed through the severest tests, and 
had emerged triumphant. There was no longer doubt in the 
hearts of the people, and no longer contempt among the na- 
tions of the earth. Abraham Lincoln, the humble and unob- 
trusive citizen, the self-educated and Christian man, had been 
tried, and had not been found wanting. His foes no longer 
denied, and his friends no longer doubted, his great ability. 
He was, in every sense, the first citizen of the republic ; and 
he had taken his place among the leading rulers of the world. 
Mr. Lincoln was re-inaugurated into the presidential office 
on the fourth of March. An immense crowd was in attend- 
ance — a crowd of affectionate friends, not doubtful of the 
President, and not doubtful of one another and the future, as 
at the first inauguration. Chief Justice Chase administered 
the oath of office ; and then Mr. Lincoln read his inaugural 
address — a paper whose Christian sentiments and whose rev- 
erent and pious spirit has no parallel among the state papers of 
the American Presidents. It showed the President still un- 
touched by resentment, still brotherly in his feelings toward 
the enemies of the government, and still profoundly conscious 
of the overruling power of Providence in national affairs. 
The address was as follows: 

" Fellow-Countrymen — At this second appearing to take the oath of 
the Presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address 
than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a 
course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the ex- 
piration of four years, during which public declarations have been con- 
stantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which 
still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, 
little that is new could be presented. 

" The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as 
well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably sat- 
isfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no 
prediction in regard to it is ventured. 

" On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts 
were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it; all 
sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered 
from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, 



504 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war — 
seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects by negotiation. 
Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather 
than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than 
let it perish; and the war came. 

" One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distrib- 
uted generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. 
These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew 
that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, 
perpetuate and extend this interest, was the object for which the insur- 
gents would rend the Union even by war, while the government claimed 
no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. 

"Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration 
which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of 
the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should 
cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental 
and astounding. 

"Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each in- 
vokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men 
should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from 
the sweat of other men's faces; but ist us judge not, that we be not 
judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither 
has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. ' Woe 
unto the world because of offences, for it must needs be that offences 
come : but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.' If we shall 
suppose that American slavery is one of these offences, which in the 
providence of God must needs come, but which having continued 
through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives 
to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by 
whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from 
those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always as- 
cribe to him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this 
mighty scourge of war may soon pass away. Yet, if God wills that it 
continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and 
fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of 
blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another drawn with the 
sword; as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 
'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' 

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the 
right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the 
work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who 
shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphans, to do all 
which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among our- 
selveft and with all nations." 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 505 

On the sixth of March, Mr. Fessenden, who had never re- 
garded himself as permanently in the office of Secretary of 
the Treasury, resigned; and Hugh McCulloch of Indiana was 
appointed to his place. Further than this, Mr. Lincoln in- 
troduced no changes into his cabinet. The people had not 
only indorsed Mr. Lincoln, but they had indorsed his admin- 
istration. On the eleventh of March, the President issued a 
proclamation, in pursuance of an act of Congress, calling upon 
deserters to return to their posts, and promising them pardon. 
The proclamation called many of the wanderers back to their 
duty. The draft for three hundred thousand men was com- 
menced on the fifteenth of the same month, and every neces- 
sary measure was adopted for a continuance of the war, 
should the constant accumulation of federal successes fail to 
brins; the rebellion to a close. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

The affairs of the rebellion were "hurrying to a crisis. In 
January, General Sherman started northward with his hosts ; 
and the borders of South Carolina were reached on the thir- 
tieth. They swept through the state, a very besom of de- 
struction — tearing up railroads, burning bridges, living on the 
country, and attracting large numbers of negroes to them, to 
learn that they were free. Columbia was occupied on the 
seventeenth of February, and the public property destroyed. 
The arteries that fed the life of Charleston were cut, and the 
proud city was evacuated without the cost of a life. Though 
threatened often, the army marched with scarcely more diffi- 
culty than they experienced in their march across Georgia. 
Fayetteville, North Carolina, was reached and occupied on 
the twelfth of March ; and then communication was estab- 
lished with Generals Terry and Schofield at Wilmington, and 
the army received such supplies as were needed. Battles oc- 
curred at Averysboro and Bentonville; but still the march 
was resistless, and the forces gathered in front, under command 
of General Johnston, were driven northward as the forest 
leaves are driven by the wind. On the twenty-second of 
March, Goldsboro was occupied ; and there the army remained 
for some days, while General Sherman visited City Point, for 
consultation with General Grant. 

The army of Sherman was aiming at Richmond. There 
was no doubt of that; but Lee was held to the rebel capital 
by Grant, and could not get away. The grand campaign 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 507 

was culminating; and, on the day that Sherman entered Golds- 
boro, Mr. Lincoln arrived at City Point, partly to relieve 
himself of official cares that had made him sick, and partly 
to be near operations which involved momentous consequences 
to the country. On the twenty-fifth of March, Lee attacked 
and captured Fort Stedman, but was driven out of it with 
terrible losses; and Mr. Lincoln visited the scene on the same 
day, cheered by the soldiers wherever he appeared. The day 
had been fixed upon for a grand review, in honor of the Presi- 
dent; but Mr. Lincoln said: ''This is better than a review." 
On the twenty-eighth of March, a council of war was held 
on the steamer Kiver Queen, at City Point, attended by the 
President and Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Meade, and 
Ord ; and, soon afterwards, Sherman left to rejoin his army. 

New dispositions of troops had been in progress for several 
days ; and, on the day following the council of war, the grand 
movement of the army of the Potomac began. Before the 
morning was passed, a new line of battle had been formed, 
whose right was on the extreme left of the former position; 
and here the army commenced entrenching. A sharp little 
fight occurred in the afternoon, without material results. On 
the following day, it rained; but on Friday, Saturday, and 
Sunday, Grant's whole line was engaged in a series of heavy 
battles; and, while these were in progress, the President re- 
mained at City 1 oint, receiving dispatches from the field, and 
forwarding the substance of them to the country. His first 
dispatch, on Saturday, reported that there had been much 
hard fighting that morning, in which our forces had been 
driven back. Later in the day, he announced that the ground 
had all been retaken, and that our troops were occupying the 
position which the rebels held in the morning. On Saturday, 
Sheridan and Warren met with great successes. On Sunday, 
the President announced "the triumphant success of our 
armies, after three days of hard fighting, during which the 
forces on both sides displayed imsurpassed valor." At half- 
past eight in the evening, Mr. Lincoln telegraphed to Mr. 
Stanton that, at half-past four in the afternoon, General Grant 



508 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

reported that he had taken twelve thousand prisoners, and 
fifty pieces of artillery. In the smoke of this great day of 
battle, the rebellion was overthrown. Lee, with his shattered 
artny reduced to half of its original numbers, by the three 
days of fighting, evacuated Richmond. The rebel rams and 
wooden fleet were blown up during the night, with terrific 
explosions. On the north side of the James, lay General 
Weitzel's corps, waiting to occupy Richmond, whenever the 
signs should indicate the safety of an advance. On Monday 
morning, April third, Weitzel pushed out the Fifth Massachu- 
setts Cavalry to reconnoiter ; and they reported that no enemy 
was to be found. At eleven in the morning, he announced by 
telegraph that he entered Richmond at a quarter past eight; 
that the enemy had left in great haste ; that he had many 
guns ; that the city was on fire ; and that the people received 
him with enthusiastic expressions of joy. His dispatch closed 
witli the statement that Grant had started to cut off Lee's re- 
treat, and that President Lincoln had gone to the front. 

The day on which Richmond fell will long be remembered 
by the people of America, in both sections of the country. 
When the news was made public on Monday, the whole North 
was thrown into a frenzy of joyous excitement. Every bell on 
every public building, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was rung 
for hours. Cannon answered to cannon, from mountain to 
mountain, and from valley to valley. Men grasped one an- 
other's hands in the streets, and wept, or embraced each other 
in the stress of their joyous enthusiasm. Public meetings were 
called, at which the deeds of the gallant heroes who had won the 
decisive victories were praised and cheered, and the public ex- 
ultation found expression in speech and music. Nothing like it 
was ever seen upon the continent. The war was over. Rich- 
mond, that had so long defied the national authority and re- 
sisted the national arms, was ours. The rebel President and 
his associates were fugitives. Lee's army was running away, 
and Grant was pursuing them. The sun of peace had fairly 
risen. The incubus of war that had pressed upon the nation's 
heart for four long, weary years, was lifted; and the nation 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 509 

sprang to its feet, -with all possible demonstrations of joyous 
exultation 

The pursuit of Lee was relentlessly prosecuted by our vic- 
torious forces ; and, after two or three battles, the rebel Gen- 
eral was obliged to surrender his whole army, which had been 
reduced by his losses to less than twenty thousand men. 
Within a period of less than two weeks, the city of Richmond 
was taken, and the proud army of Virginia passed out of ex- 
istence. The capture of Lee was made the occasion of ail- 
other day of popular rejoicing; and the scenes and sounds 
that followed the capture of Richmond were repeated. 

Of the feelings of Mr. Lincoln, as he sat in his tent at City 
Point, receiving the dispatches which informed him of the 
momentous movements in progress at the front, no imagina- 
tion can form an exaggerated estimate. But he could- not 
sustain the excitement of those days without relief; and he 
found it in a way which none but he would have adopted. 
Just before he arrived at City Point, a pet cat, belono-mcr to 
General Grant, had presented the General with a little family 
of kittens. On their owner's departure, the President took 
them into his care ; and, during all those days of battle, in the 
intervals while he waited for dispatches, he relieved the pres- 
sure upon his heart and brain by playing with these kittens. 
When Richmond had fallen, and he was about to start for the 
front, he took up one of the kittens, and said: "Little kitten, 
I must perform a last act of kindness for you, before I go. I 
must open your eyes." lie then manipulated the closed lids 
as tenderly as a mother would handle her child, until he had 
accomplished his purpose. Then he put her down, and, as 
he stood enjoying her surprise at being able to see, he said 
sadly : " Oh that I could open the eyes of my blinded fellow- 
countrymen, as easily as I have those of that little creature ! " 
The eyes of his blinded fellow-countrymen were soon opened, 
but alas ! it involved the closing of his own ! 

Mr. Lincoln belied his own estimate of his physical courage, 
by going directly into the fallen capital, so lately swarmino- 
with armed enemies, and so crowded still with sullen rebels. 



510 LIFE OF ABRAIIAM LINCOLN. 

He did this apparently without a thought of danger, although 
the whole loyal North trembled with apprehension. He went 
op in a man-of-war, on the afternoon of Monday, landed at the 
Rocketts below the city, and with his boy "Tad" rode up 
the remaining mile in a boat. He entered the city in no tri- 
umphal car. No brilliant cavalcade accompanied him; but 
on foot, with no guard except the sailors who had rowed him 
up the James, he entered and passed through the streets of 
the fallen capital. But his presence soon became known to 
the grateful blacks, who pressed upon him with their thank- 
ful ejaculations and tearful blessings on every side. Better 
and more expressive were the hats and handkerchiefs, tossed 
in the air by these happy and humble people, than flags and 
streamers, floating from masts and house-tops. "Glory to 
God! Glory! Glory!" shouted the black multitude of liber- 
ated slaves. "I thank you dear Jesus, that I behold Presi- 
dent Linkum," exclaimed a woman standing in her humble 
doorway, weeping in the fullness of her joy. Another, wild 
with delight, could do nothing but jump, and strike her hands, 
and shout with wild reiteration: "Bless de Lord! Bless de 
Lord! Bless de Lord!" At last, the streets became choked 
with the multitude, and soldiers were called to clear the M r ay. 
A writer in the Atlantic Monthly, to whom the author is in- 
debted for the most of these particulars, says that one old ne- 
gro exclaimed: "May de good Lord bless you, President 
Linkum!" while he removed his hat, and the tears of joy 
rolled down his checks. "The President," the account pro- 
ceeds, "removed his own hat, and bowed in silence; but it 
was a bow which upset the forms, laws, customs, and cere- 
monies of centuries. It was a death-shock to chivalry, and 
a mortal wound to caste." 

After a visit to General Weitzel's headquarters, and a drive 
around the city, he returned to City Point. On Thursday, 
he visited the city again, accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln and 
the Vice-president, with others. While he was in Richmond 
on this occasion, he held important interviews with leading 
citizens, prominent among whom was Judge Campbell, one 



LIFE OF ABItAIIAM LINCOLN. 511 

of the parties in the Hampton Roads conference. The Judge 
urged him to issue a proclamation, permitting the Virginia 
Legislature to assemble, under the representation that that 
body would recognize the situation, and withdraw the Virginia 
troops from the support of Lee. After his return to City 
Point, he addressed a note to General Weitzel, directing him 

7 O 

to permit the legislature to assemble, and to protect them until 
they should attempt some action hostile to the United States. 
He was also directed to show the note to Judge Campbell, 
but not to make it public. The Judge sent an account of his 
interview and its results to the Richmond Whig ; and, this 
having been copied into the Washington Chronicle, after Mr. 
Lincoln's return to the federal capital, the President was very 
indignant. The breach of confidence on the part of Judge 
Campbell, and the misrepresentations which accompanied it, 
quite exhausted his patience. As Lee's army had surren- 
dered, and there was no further apology for the desire to have- 
the legislature assemble, he revoked his permission for its con- 
vocation. It was evident, in a cabinet meeting that was heU 
a few days afterward, that Judge Campbell's course had much 
embittered him. He had been inclined to trust in the persona^ 
honor of rebels with whom he had been brought in contact s 
but he evidently felt that his confidence had been practiced 
upon by Campbell; and the fact stung him to indignation, 
if not anger. 

The order produced an unpleasant effect upon the public 
mind, and its revocation was received with gratification all 
over the North. The revocation did not come early enough, 
however, to save serious difficulty in other quarters ; for Sher- 
man, negotiating with Johnston, patterned his policy upon 
that of the President, and brought down upon himself the 
reprobation of the loyal press of the country — reprobation 
which, in extreme instances, assumed the form of direct 
charges of disloyalty against this gallant and most loyal sol- 
dier. But Johnston surrendered ; and soon there was not an 
army of the rebellion that had not given itself up to our 
forces, or been disbanded and scattered. 



512 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The great rebellion was ended. General Grant reached 
Washington on the thirteenth of April, and held an interview 
with the President and Mr. Stanton, the result of which was 
the issue of an order from the War Department on the same 
day, or, rather, of a statement that orders would immediately 
be issued, to stop drafting and recruiting, to curtail purchases 
for arms, ammunition and supplies, to reduce the number of 
general and staff officers to the necessities of the service, and 
to remove military restrictions on trade and commerce. 

The American people were floating on the high tide of joy. 
All were glad and happy; and, as they returned their thanks 
to the Giver of all good for victory and peace, they did not 
forget the instrument he had used in the execution of his 
plans. Mr. Lincoln's name was on every tongue. The pa- 
tient man who had suffered the pain of a thousand deaths 
during the war — who had been misconstrued, maligned, and 
condemned by personal and party enemies, and questioned 
and criticised by captious friends, — was the man above all 
others who stood in the full sunshine of the popular affection. 
His motives were vindicated, his policy had been sanctioned 
by success, and his power had been proved. He was the ac- 
knowledged savior of his country, and the liberator of a race. 
He had solved the great problem of popular government ; he 
had settled the great question of African slavery on the con- 
tinent. He had won a glorious place in history ; and his name 
had been committed to the affectionate safe-keeping of man- 
kind. 

On the evening of the eleventh of April, the White House 
was brilliantly illuminated ; and to the immense crowd gath- 
ered around it, to express their joyous congratulations, Mr. 
Lincoln delivered his last public address. He said little about 
victory, further than briefly to express his acknowledgments 
to the soldiers who had fought, and the God who had pros- 
pered their arms ; but, turning his eyes from the past, he re- 
garded the future, and the new duties and perplexities which 
it was certain to bring. "Reconstruction" was the burden of 
his speech ; and he explained, at length, his connection with 



LIFE OF ABEAUAM LINCOLN. 513 

the efforts at reconstruction which hud taken place in Louisi- 
ana. The question as to whether the rebel states were out 
of the Union, or in it, he regarded as a ''pernicious abstrac- 
tion.'" "We all agree," said he, "that the seceded states, so 
called, are out of their proper practical relation with the Union ; 
and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, 
in regard to those states, is to again get them into their proper 
practical relation." He believed the state government of 
Louisiana offered for that state a practicable plan of return, 
but he was not committed to that plan alone. The quickest 
way back to the old relations with the government was the 
best way, without any regard to any finely spun theories. 

The Louisiana Legislature had ratified the Constitutional 
amendment abolishing slavery, and Mr. Lincoln said: "These 
twelve thousand persons (the loyal element of the state) are 
thus fully committed to the Union, and the perpetuation of 
freedom in the state — committed to the very things, and nearly 
all the tilings, the nation wants ; and they ask the nation's 
recognition, and its assistance to make 2;ood this committal. 
Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disor- 
ganize and disperse them. We, in fact, say to the white man : 
' You are worthless, or worse : we will neither help you nor be 
helped by you.' To the blacks we say : ' This cup of liberty 
which these your old masters, held to your lips, we will dash 
from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled 
and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, 
where, and Iioav.' " 

All the President's plans considered the welfare of the 
black man as well as the white ; and there will be no better 
opportunity to give his views of negro suffrage than this page 
will furnish. This great question, which promises to be a 
stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to the party which 
placed Mr. Lincoln in power — a stone which is certain, in 
the administration of God's providence, to become the head 
of the corner — was one which he had carefully considered, 
and upon which, with his respect for human rights, he could 
have but one opinion. In a letter to the late General Wads- 
33 



514 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

worth, he once said: "You desire to know, in the event of 
our complete success in the field, the same being followed by- 
loyal and cheerful submission on the part of the South, if 
universal amnesty should not be accompanied with universal 
suffrage. Since you know my private inclinations as to what 
terms should be granted to the South, in the contingency 
mentioned, I will here add that, if our success should thus be 
realized, followed by such desired results, I cannot see, if uni- 
versal amnesty is granted, how, under the circumstances, I can 
avoid exacting in return universal suffrage, or at least suffrage 
on the basis of intelligence and military service" 

Thus stands Mr. Lincoln's record on this question, and thus 
must stand the record of every man whose love of men and 
whose regard for human rights are as genuine as those which 
moved the heart of the good President. The party which 
loved and supported Mr. Lincoln cannot deny the principle 
of universal suffrage, without denying both Mr. Lincoln and 
the everlasting principles of right upon which he based his 
action — upon which they have won all their successes. And 
if, for immediate advantage, in the strife for power, they so 
far turn their backs upon their record as to deny manhood to 
the African, and refuse to recognize his service in the salva- 
tion of the republic, they are sure to be defeated, as they will 
be certain to deserve defeat. 



->. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Mr. Lincoln had reached the pinnacle of his life. By 
careful and painful steps he had mounted from the foot of the 
ladder of American society to its topmost round. He had 
done this by the forces of his nature and character, without 
adventitious aids, or favoring circumstances. He had accom- 
plished the greatest work for his country and for mankind 
that had ever been committed to a mortal to perform. A oreat 
nation had been saved from wreck by his hands ; a race had 
been disenthralled by his word and his policy ; and a popular 
government had been established in the faith and affections of 
its subjects, and in the respect of the governments of the 
world. His enemies had been silenced, his friends had been 
reassured, his motives and his policy had been vindicated, and 
his person had come to be regarded with tender affection by 
tens of millions of men. Up to him were wafted the accla- 
mations of millions of freemen. Across the ocean came ap- 
preciative and plauditory words from other continents. . Ben- 
edictions were breathed upon him by multitudes of humble 
people whom he had enfranchised. Is it strange that the in- 
stincts of his own logical mind should forecast death as the 
next logical step in such a course? 

Throughout all the later months and years of the war, he 
had freely said that he did not expect to outlast the rebellion ; 
but in the flush of triumph, — in his large, loving, and liberal 
plans for the good of the people whom the fortunes of war 
had left at his feet, — in his dreams of the future union and har- 



516 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

mony of the states, — he forgot this, and was hopeful and happy. 
He talked to his friends, his cabinet, and his family cheerfully 
of the future, and gratefully of the past. lie had no resent- 
ment to gratify, no revenge to inflict, no malicious passion 
that clamored for indulgence. The thought of being able to 
prove to the people of the South that he owed them no ill- 
will, and the determination to deal with them as gently as 
would be for the public safety, filled his magnanimous spirit 
with the sweetest satisfaction. 

It is hardly to be supposed that the possibility of assassina- 
tion was ever long absent from his mind, during the four years 
of his presidency. The threats began before he left Spring- 
field for Washington. The attempt to assassinate him was 
made upon the train that bore him from his home. It was 
repeated upon that which bore him from Cincinnati. He ran 
through the meshes of a conspiracy against his life at Balti- 
more. He was in the constant receipt of threatening letters ; 
and these were kept in a package by themselves, appropri- 
ately labeled. He did not permit these, however, to trouble 
him, rc^ardino- them as only the malicious missives of bullies 
and cowards. He undoubtedly regarded himself as always 
in a dangerous position, though the fact had no tendency to 
make him careful of himself. He reasoned upon this, as upon 
other subjects, and could never see that anything would be 
gained by his death. He had no comprehension of the malice 
that would delight in his assassination, as a measure of revenge. 
He supposed that every man would require some rational pur- 
pose to be answered by so terrible a crime. " If they kill me," 
said he, on one occasion, " the next man will be just as bad for 
them ; and, in a country like this, where our habits are simple, 
and must be, assassination is always possible, and will come 
if they are determined upon it." He went to and from the 
War Department with perfect freedom ; drove out to the Sol- 
diers' Home, his summer residence, and back at night, often in 
an open carriage, alone. He walked the streets of Washing- 
ton at night, with only an unarmed companion, who trembled 
with the apprehension of the possible consequences of such 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 517 

an exposure. Mr. Seward, in reply to a letter from lion. 
John Bigelow, the American consul in Paris, wrote under 
date of July 15th, 1864: "There is no doubt that, from a pe- 
riod anterior to the breaking out of the insurrection, plots and 
conspiracies for the purposes of assassination have been fre- 
quently formed and organized." Mr. Bigelow had reported 
to Mr. Seward a plot which had become known abroad. Mr. 
Seward added: "Assassination is not an American practice 
or habit ; and one so vicious and so desperate cannot be en- 
grafted into our political system. This conviction of mine 
has steadily gained strength since the civil war began. Ev- 
ery day's experience confirms it." Notwithstanding Mr. Sew- 
ard's theory, plots were formed against his own life, as well 
as that of Mr. Lincoln — plots, indeed, embracing more than 
these two persons, and extending to nearly all the prominent 
men in the government and in its military service. General 
Grant and General Sherman were both the unconscious ob- 
jects of deadly conspiracies. It is now known that, not only 
in the States, but in Canada and Europe, plots of this char- 
acter were concocted ; and it is believed that, on on'e occasion, 
the President actually took poison, in the drugs that were pre- 
scribed for him by his physician, and prepared in one of the 
shops of the city. 

Secretary Seward, even before he came so near to death 
through one of these conspiracies, was compelled to give up 
his theory, and to acknowledge that he and the President 
were in positive danger. 

The morning of the fourteenth of April was spent by Mr- 
Lincoln mainly in interviews with his friends. Among those 
who called was Speaker Colfax, who was about setting out 
upon an overland journey to the Pacific coast, a journey which 
has since 'been satisfactorily accomplished; and to him the 
President entrusted a verbal message to the miners, assuring 
them of his friendliness to their interests, and tellino- them 
that their prosperity was identified with the prosperity of the 
nation. General Grant, it will be remembered, was in the 
city ; and he was invited to be present at the cabinet meeting 



518 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

held during the day. In public and social duties the day- 
passed away; and in the evening Mr. Colfax came again. 
George Ashmun of Massachusetts also came in, and to him 
Mr. Lincoln gave the following little note in pencil — the last 
words he ever wrote: 

•Allow Mr. Ashmun and friend* to come in at 9 A. m. to-morrow. 

" A Lincoln." 

Mr. Lincoln and General Grant were the lions of the day ; 
and the manager of Ford's theater, with a keen eye to busi- 
ness, had not only invited them to witness that night the rep- 
resentation of " Our American Cousin," but announced them 
both as positively to be present. The Washington papers of 
the fourteenth contained the following "personal notice:" 

" Lieutenant-general Grant, President and Mrs. Lincoln, and ladies, 
will occupy the state box at Ford's theater to-night, to witness Miss 
Laura Keene's company in Tom Taylor's 'American Cousin." 

General Grant did not desire to attend, and so left the city. 
The President was equally disinclined to the entertainment; 
but, as his presence and that of General Grant also had been 
pledged to the people, he saw that there would be great dis- 
appointment if he should fail them ; and, when Mrs. Lincoln 
entered the President's room to inquire what decision he 
had arrived at, he said that he had concluded to go. He in- 
vited both Mr. Ashmun and Mr. Colfax to accompany him, 
but both declined, pleading other engagements ; and Mr. and 
Mrs. Lincoln, attended to the carriage by Mr. Ashmun, left 
without other company, and drove directly to the house of 
Senator Harris, where they took in Miss Harris, a daughter 
of the Senator, and Major Rathbone, a son of the Senator's 
wife, who happened to be in at the time. The party reached 
the theater at twenty minutes before nine o'clock, to find the 
house filled in every part ; and, as they passed to their seats 
in the private box reserved for them, the whole assembly rose 
and cheered them, with the most cordial enthusiasm. This 

* Judge C. P. Daly of New York. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ol9 

demonstration was intended as an expression of good-will, 
and as a popular congratulation on tlie victories that had 
brought the rebellion to a close. The President bowed to the 
audience, took his seat, and was soon afterwards absorbed in 
the scenes of mimic life upon the stage. Here let us leave 
him, to trace the movements of another person. 

At half-past eleven o'clock, on the morning of the four- 
teenth, John "Wilkes Booth, a young actor who had been 
openly disloyal throughout the Avar, visited Ford's theater, 
where he was informed that a box had been taken for the Pres- 
ident and General Grant. Then he went to a stable, and en- 
gaged a high-strung mare for a saddle-ride, which he pro- 
posed to take in the middle of the afternoon. From the stable 
he proceeded to the Kirkwood Hotel, where he sent up to 
Vice-president Johnson a card, bearing the words : " I do n't 
wish to disturb you; are you at home?" To this, his signa- 
ture was appended; and it drew from Mr. Johnson only the 
response that he was very busily engaged. At four o'clock, 
he called for the mare, and rode away, leaving her at last at 
a point convenient for his further purposes. In the evening, 
he took her from her hiding-place, and rode to the theater. 
Summoning one Spangler, a scene-shifter, he left the animal 
in his charge, to be held until he should return. Then he as- 
cended to the dress-circle, looked in upon the stage and the 
audience, and gradually worked his way through the crowd 
packed in the rear of the dress-circle, toward the box occu- 
pied by the Presidential party. This box was at the end of 
the dress-circle, next the stage ; and was reached by passing 
in the rear of the dress-circle, to a door opening first into a 
dark, narrow passage, and then by two doors opening from 
the passage. This passage was contrived so that the box 
might be made a double one, when occasion required, by se- 
curing facilities for a double entrance, an inside sliding parti- 
tion completing the arrangement. To the entrance of thia 
passage, Booth forced himself; and, after showing a card to the 
President's servant, and saying that Mr. Lincoln had sent for 
him, he passed into the passage, and fastened the door behind 



520 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

him. Presenting himself at the door of the box, he took a 
quick survey of the interior. He found everything favorable 
to his purpose ; and, taking a small Derringer pistol in one 
hand, and a double-edged dagger in the other, he thrust his arm 
into the entrance, where the President, sitting in an arm -chair, 
presented to his full view the back and side of his head. A 
flash, a sharp report, a puff of smoke, and the fatal bullet had 
entered the President's brain. Mr. Lincoln did not stir. Peo- 
ple thought that the report of the pistol had some connection 
with the play ; but the awful truth was soon apparent. There 
was no escape for the murderer by the way through which he 
had reached the box; for the crowd was too great. Major 
Eathbone, the instant he comprehended what was done, sprang 
upon Booth, who, throwing him off, dropped his pistol, and 
struck him with his dagger, inflicting a flesh wound upon the 
officer's arm. Then the murderer rushed to the front of the 
box, parted the folds of the flag with which it Avas draped for 
the occasion, and leaped to the stage, half falling as he de- 
scended, his spurs having caught in the drapery. Then 
springing to his feet, he uttered with theatrical emphasis the 
words of the state motto of Virginia: " Sic semper tyrannic!" 
and added: "The South is avenged." Quickly turning, he 
rushed from the stage, striking from his path all whom he met, 
and, escaping at the rear of the theater, was in his saddle and 
away before the party around the President and the audience 
fully comprehended what had been done. Only a single man 
in the audience took in at once the meaning of the scene ; and, 
although he undertook to follow Booth, the assassin had dis- 
appeared before he reached the door. 

Mrs. Lincoln screamed, and Miss Harris called for water. 
The scene among the audience defies all description. Women 
shrieked and fainted. Men called for vengeance. The most 
terrible uproar prevailed. Laura Ivcene, the actress, begged 
the audience to be calm, and entered the box from the stage, 
bearing water and cordials. The President was entirely un- 
conscious; and, as soon as the surgeons, who had gathered 
quickly to him, had ascertained the position and nature of the 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 521 

wound, the helpless form was borne across Tenth street to the 
house of a Mr. Peterson. Surgeon-general Barnes, after ex- 
amination, pronounced the wound a mortal one. The words fell 
upon the cars of Secretary Stanton, who, bursting into tears, 
responded: "Oh, no! General, no, no!" Attorney-general 
Speed, Secretary Welles, Postmaster-general Dennison, Gen- 
eral Meigs, Mr. McCulloch, the new Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, and. Senator Sumner were gathered around the bed, the 
last holding one of the President's hands, and sol thing like a 
child. In an adjoining room, supported by her son Robert 
and Mrs. Senator Dixon, sat Mrs. Lincoln, bewildered and 
crushed by her great grief. Around the unconscious form of 
the President the great men of the nation bowed, and wept, 
watching the heaving of his breast, until, at twenty-two min- 
utes past seven in the morning, he breathed his last. 

In another part of the city, at the moment of the murder 
and alarm at the theater, another scene of terrible violence 
was enacted, which showed that one of the many conspira- 
cies that had been organized to destroy the heads of the gov- 
ernment was in process of execution. 

A few days previously, Mr. Seward had been thrown from 
his carriage, and severely injured. lie was still very low, 
and under the most careful medical and surgical treatment, 
A little after ten, on this fatal evening, the door-bell of his 
residence Avas rung by a man who said he came with medicine 
from Dr. Verdi, Mr. Seward's physician, which it was neces- 
sary for him to deliver in person. The servant who admitted 
him protested that no one was permitted to see Mr. Seward. 
The man pushed him aside, and mounted the stairs. "When he 
was about to enter the Secretary's room, Mr. Frederick Sew- 
ard, the Secretary's son, appeared, and inquired his business. 
He gave the same reply that he had given to the servant, when 
the gentleman told him that he could not enter. In return 
for this refusal, Mr. Frederick Seward received a stunniner 
blow upon his forehead, with the butt of a pistol; and the 
man pushed on to the bedside of the Secretary, mounted the 
bed, and, aiming at Mr. Seward's throat, stabbed him three 



522 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

times. He would undoubtedly have killed him, had he not 
been seized around the body by the nurse of Mr. Seward, a 
soldier named Robinson. While the assassin was struggling 
with Robinson, Mr. Seward summoned sufficient strength to 
roll himself off the bed. The murderer, inflicting severe 
wounds upon Robinson, burst away from him, rushed to the 
door, forced his way down stairs, stabbing Major Augustus 
Seward and one of his father's attendants on the way, and 
escaped into the street. He had stabbed no less than five 
persons. This conspirator, known afterwards to the public 
by the name of Payne, was Lewis Payne Powell. 

The effect of these two tragedies upon the popular feeling 
in the city of Washington may possibly be imagined, but it 
cannot be described. Some cried for retaliation upon the 
leaders of a rebellion that could inspire such deeds, and for 
revenge even upon the helpless prisoners in our hands. Others 
were possessed by a sense of horror ; others by emotions of 
terror ; others by an overwhelming grief; and all by a feeling 
of uncertainty and insecurity. How wide was the conspiracy? 
How comprehensive was the plot? Who were the designated 
victims? What would be the next development? There was 
no sleep in Washington that night. A terrible solemnity took 
possession of the noisy capital. Only the military were busv. 
All the drinking shops of the city were closed, the outlets of 
the city were guarded, and every necessary step was taken 
for the protection of the persons of the other members of the 
government. 

The effect of these terrible events upon the popular heart 
throughout the country was touching in the extreme. From 
the sunniest hills of joy, the people went down weeping into 
the darkest valleys of affliction. The long, |ad morning of the 
President's death was full of the sound of tolling bells. It 
was everywhere the same. By a common impulse the bells 
from every tower in the land gave voice to the popular grief; 
and from every dwelling and store and shop, from every church 
and public building, the insignia of sorrow were displayed. 
The markets were literally cleared of every fabric that could 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 523 

be used for the drapery of mourning. Men met in the 
streets, and pressed each other's hands in silence, or burst 
into tears. The whole nation, -which, the previous day, was 
jubilant and hopeful, was precipitated into the depths of a 
profound and tender woe. Millions felt that they had lost 
a brother, or a father, or a dear personal friend. It was a 
grief that brought the nation more into family sympathy than 
it had been since the days of the devolution. Men came 
together in public meetings, to give expression to their grief. 
The day on which the murder was announced to the country 
was Saturday; and on Sunday all the churches were draped 
with mourning; and from every pulpit in the land came the 
voice of lamentation over the national loss, and of eulogy to 
the virtues of the good President who had been so cruelly 
murdered. There were men eno-awd in the rebellion who 
turned from the deed with horror. Many of these had learned 
something of the magnanimity of Mr. Lincoln's character; 
and they felt that the time would come when the South 
would need his friendship. These regarded his death as a 
great calamity; but it must seem doubtful whether those Avho 
could starve helpless prisoners, and massacre black soldiers 
after they had surrendered, and murder in cool blood hund- 
reds of Union men, for no crime but affection for the govern- 
ment which Mr. Lincoln represented, could have been greatly 
shocked by his assassination. They made haste, however, to 
disown and denounce the deed ; and pretended to regard it, not 
as an act of the rebellion, but as the irresponsible act of a 
crazed desperado. 

After the death of the President, his body was removed to 
the White House, from which he had gone on the previous 
evening, under such happy circumstances. A room had been 
prepared for its reception ; and there it was placed in a coffin, 
which rested upon a grand catafalque. The affection and 
grief of the people were manifested by offerings of flowers, 
with which the room was kept constantly supplied. On Mon- 
day, the seventeenth, a meeting of congressmen and others 
was held at the Capitol, presided over by Hon. Lafayette S. 



524 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Foster of Connecticut. A committee, of which Senator Sum- 
ner of Massachusetts was chairman, was appointed to make 
arrangements for the funeral ; and this committee reported at 
an adjourned meeting, held at four o'clock in the afternoon, 
that they had selected as pall-beai*ers Messrs. Foster, Mor- 
gan, Johnson, Yates, Wade, and Conness, on the part of the 
Senate, and Messrs. Dawes, Coffroth, Smith, Colfax, Worth- 
ington, and Washburne, on the part of the House. They also 
presented the names of gentlemen, one from each state and 
territory of the Union, to act as a congressional committee, to 
accompany the remains to their final resting-place in Illinois. 

Meantime, the body of the President had been embalmed ; 
and, at ten o'clock, on Tuesday morning, the White House was 
thrown open, to give the people an opportunity to take their 
farewell of the familiar face, whose kind smile death had for- 
ever quenched. At least twenty-five thousand persons availed 
themselves of this liberty; and thousands more, seeing the 
crowd, turned back unsatisfied. Hundreds of those who 
pressed around the sacred dust, uttered some affectionate 
word, or phrase, or sentence. The rich and the poor, the 
white and the black, mingled their tokens of affectionate 
regard, and dropped side by side their tears upon the coffin. 
It was humanity weeping over the dust of its benefactor. 

On Wednesday, the day of the funeral, all the departments 
were closed, all public work was suspended, flags were placed 
at half-mast, and the public buildings were draped with 
mourning. The funeral services were held in the East Room, 
which was occupied by the relatives of the deceased (with 
the exception of Mrs. Lincoln, who was too much prostrated 
to leave her room,) and by governmental and judicial dignita- 
ries, and such high officials from the states as had gathered to 
the capital to pay their last tribute of respect to the illustrious 
dead. The ceremonies were conducted with great solemnity 
and dignity o The scriptures were read by Rev. Dr. Hale, of 
the Episcopal church ; the opening prayer was made by Bishop 
Simpson, of the Methodist church ; the funeral address was de- 
livered by Rev. Dr. Gurley, of the Presbyterian church which 



LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 525 

Mr. Lincoln and his family had attended; and the closing 
prayer -\vas offered by Rev. Dr. Gray, the chaplain of the 
Senate, and the pastor of a Baptist church. Among those 
present from the states were Governors Fenton of New York, 
Andrew of Massachusetts, Parker of New Jersey, Brough of 
Ohio, Oglesby of Illinois, and Buckingham of Connecticut. 
Dr. Gurley's tribute was a noble one — entirely worthy of the 
occasion. "Probably no man since the days of Washington," 
said he, 'was ever so deeply and firmly imbedded and en- 
shrined in the hearts of the people as Abraham Lincoln. Nor 
was it a mistaken confidence and love. lie deserved it; de- 
served it Avell ; deserved it all. He merited it by his character, 
by his acts, and by the tenor and tone and spirit of his life. 
* * * His integrity was thorough, all-pervading, all-control- 
ling and incorruptible." Speaking of the great national emer- 
gency in which Mr. Lincoln was called to power, he said : 
"He rose to the dignity and momentousness of the occasion; 
saw his duty as the chief magistrate of a great and imp*eriled 
people; and he determined to do his duty and his whole duty, 
seeking the guidance, and leaning upon the arm, of Him of 
whom it is written — ' He giveth power to the faint, and to 
them that have no might he increaseth strength.' Yes, he 
leaned upon His arm. Pie recognized and received the truth 
that the kingdom is the Lord's." 

At the close of the ceremonies in the White House, the 
august personages present, and various bodies of civil and 
military officials, joined in the procession which accompanied 
the sacred remains to the Capitol. It was the most impress- 
ive procession that ever passed through the grand avenue 
which leads from the presidential mansion to the CapitoL 
The avenue was cleared ; and every piazza, windoAv, veranda, 
and honse-top, was filled with eager but mournful faces. 
Funereal music filled the sweet spring air; and this was the 
only sound, except the measured tread of feet, and the tlow 
roll of wheels upon the pavement. This procession Avas so 
long that the head of it had begun to disperse at the Capitol, 
before the rear had passed the Treasury Department. As 



52G LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the hearse, drawn by, six gray horses, reached the Capitol 
grounds, the bands burst forth in a requiem, and were answered 
by minute-guns from the fortifications. The body of the 
President was borne into the rotunda, where Dr. Gurley com- 
pleted the religious exercises of the occasion. Here the re- 
mains rested, exposed to public view, but guarded by soldiery, 
until the next day. Thousands who had had no other oppor- 
tunity to take their farewell of the beloved dust thronged the 
Capitol all night. The pageant of the day, in many of its 
aspects, was never paralleled upon this continent. Nothing like 
it — nothing approaching it — had ever occurred in this coun- 
try, if, indeed, in the world. 

While these funeral services and ceremonies were in progress 
in Washington, similar ceremonies were observed in every part 
of the country. Churches were thrown open, where prayer 
and sermon and music united in the expression of affection for 
the dead, and lamentation for the national loss. Great public 
gatherings were held, in which the memory of the good Pres- 
ident was celebrated in impulsive speech or studied eulogy. 
The whole nation suspended its business, and gave itself up 
to the mournful services and associations of the day. Never 
had such a funeral been given to a national ruler. Never had 
died a man who received such testimonials of universal affec- 
tion and grief. A whole nation mourned its dead. One 
thought enthralled, every heart — the thought of a great, good 
man — the father of his people — cruelly murdered ; and all an- 
imosities were overwhelmed in the "general grief. All detrac- 
tion was hushed; and every heart that had done him wrong, 
made its amends to his memory, and won peace for itself, by 
awarding to him his just meed of praise. 

As there was never such a funeral as this, so there was 
never such a procession. That which moved from the White 
House, on the nineteenth, was but the beginning of a pageant 
that displayed its marvelous numbers and its ever-varying 
forms, through country, and village, and city, winding across 
the territories of vast states, along a track of more than fif- 
teen hundred miles. The President was to be borne back to 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. "627 

his own people, and to be buried among the scenes of his early 
life. lie had told the people of Springfield, Illinois, when he 
parted with them, more than four years before, that he owed 
to them all that he was. It was but right that thev should 
have his dust. 

On the twenty-first, the funeral train left TVashington, 
amid the silent grief of thousands who had gathered to wit- 
ness its departure. "With the coffin which contained the 
remains of the President, went back to the western home the 
coffin which contained the dust of his beloved Willie, Avhose 
death has already been mentioned ; and father and son, in the 
touching companionship of death, traveled together the long 
journey. At ten o'clock, the train reached Baltimore. The 
immense crowd that had assembled here to pay their last 
tribute of respect to the departed President, was full of its 
suggestions of the change which four years had wrought upon 
the city. It seemed incredible that this was the city through 
which the living President had so lately passed, in fear of the 
fate which had at last overtaken him. Nothing that the in- 
genuity of grief could devise was left undone to make the 
return passage an imposing testimonial to his memory. The 
display of military was large; and all th§ ceremonies of the 
occasion were such as did honor, alike to the people of the 
city, and to the man they mourned. In the afternoon, the train 
moved for Harrisburg, but not until a multitude had improved 
the opportunity to obtain a view of the pale, dead face of their 
friend. On the way, new mourners were taken on; and at 
every considerable station people had gathered to see the sol- 
emn pageant sweep by. At York, six ladies came into the 
car, and deposited upon the coffin an exquisite wreath of flow- 
ers, while all who witnessed the affectionate tribute were moved 
to tears. Bells were tolled, and bands breathed forth their 
plaintive music, at every village. The funeral obsequies at 
Harrisburg were observed in the evening. Until midnight, 
the people crowded into the State Capitol, to obtain a view of 
the remains ; and, from seven to nine on the following morning, 
the catafalque was surrounded by the anxious throngs that 



528 LIFE Or ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

had come in from all the country round, for the purpose. At 
this place, as at all the places on the route, there were new 
pall-bearers, new processions, and new expressions of the 
popular grief. A very large procession accompanied the re- 
mains to the cars; and from Harrisburg to Philadelphia the 
funeral train moved through crowds of people, assembled at 
every convenient point. For several miles before the train 
reached Philadelphia, both sides of the railway were occupied 
by almost continuous lines of men, women, and children, who 
stood with uncovered heads as the train passed them. 

Philadelphia was draped with mourning, to give a fitting 
reception to the honored dead. The streets were filled with 
people, long before the funeral train arrived; and cannon 
thundered forth the announcement of its coming-. All that 
ingenuity, aided by abundant means, could do, to make the 
fresh pageant a worthy one, was done. A new hearse had 
been built, and this was drawn by eight splendid black horses, 
in silver-mounted harnesses. The procession itself was com- 
posed of eleven divisions, and was one of the most remarkable, 
in every respect, with which the remains of the President 
were honored during their long passage to their resting-place. 
What place more fit for the brief sojourn of these remains 
than Independence Hall, intimately associated, as it was, 
with the principles which the sleeping patriot had faithfully 
defended, and still echoing to the ear of sorrowing affection 
with the sound of his living voice ? To this hall he Avas borne, 
amid the tears of a vast multitude. The hall was literally 
filled with the most exquisite flowers. Prom ten o'clock until 
midnight, the people had the opportunity to view the remains 
of their beloved chief ma^istrateo Then the doors were 
closed ; but hundreds remained around the building all night, 
that they might be first in the morning. The following day 
was Sunday, and from six o'clock in the morning until one 
o'clock on Monday mornino- during which the remains were 
exposed to view, a dense, unbroken stream of men, women, 
and children, pressed into and out of the building. The Phil- 
adelphia Inquirer, in its report of the occasion, said: "Never 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 529 

before in the history of our city was such a dense mass of hu- 
manity huddled together. Hundreds of persons were seri- 
ously injured, from being pressed in the mob; and many faint- 
ing females were extricated by the police and military, and 
conveyed to places of security." After a person was once in 
the line, it took from four to five hours to reach the hall. At 
one o'clock, on Monday morning, the procession recommenced 
its march, bearing the body to Kensington Station, which was 
left at four, for the passage to New York. Bells were tolled, 
mottoes were displayed, minute-guns were fired, and the peo- 
ple were gathered at the various stations along the entire pas- 
sage through New Jersey. It seemed as if the whole state 
had come to the railroad line, simply to witness the passage 
of the funeral train. 

It is bewildering to read the accounts of the ceremonies at 
New York, and impracticable to reproduce them. The pas- 
sage of the beloved remains into and through the great city, 
and the interval of their brief rest while they lay in state in 
the City Hall, were marked at every stage by some new and 
impressive expression of the public grief. Minute-guns, toll- 
ing bells, requiems by choirs of singers, dirges by bands of 
musicians, military and civic displays, suspended business, 
draped flags, and shrouded private and public buildings, — 
all mingled their testimony to the universal sorrow, and the 
common wish to do justice and honor to a hallowed mem- 
ory. Every street and avenue around the City Hall was filled 
with people. The first line formed for viewing the remains 
was three quarters of a mile long, and reached far up the 
Bowery. From the moment when the coffin-lid was removed, 
until nearly noon on the following day, through all the long 
night, the people pressed into the hall, caught a hasty glimpse 
of the beloved features, and then retired ; until it was esti- 
mated that one hundred and fifty thousand persons had gained 
their object, while it was evident that twice that number had 
failed to win the patiently awaited vision. The military pro- 
cession which accompanied the remains to the depot of the 
Hudson River Itailroad was the most remarkable ever wit- 
34 



530 LIFE Or ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

nessed in the city, numbering fully fifteen thousand troops. 
The carriages in the procession were filled with federal and 
state dignitaries, and representatives of foreign governments 
in full court costume; and the line of the procession was 
thronged from the beginning to the end by crowding multi- 
tudes of spectators. The New York Herald's report says: 
"The people, with tearful eyes, under the shadow of the great 
affliction, watched patiently and unmurmuringly the moving 
of the honored dead and the mournful procession, and silently 
breathed over them the most heartfelt and fervent prayers. 
* * * Such an occasion, such a crowd, and such a day, New 
York may never see again." 

At a quarter past four, on the afternoon of the twenty-fifth, 
the train which bore the funeral party from New York left the 
station, drawn by the "Union," the same locomotive that 
brought Mr. Lincoln to New York, on his passage to Wash- 
ington, more than four years previously. The train passed to 
Albany without stopping, except at Poughkeepsie, where a 
delegation from*the city government of Albany was taken on 
board ; but the people were gathered at every point to witness 
the passage. Mottoes were displayed, draped flags floated 
everywhere, and all along the route stood the silent crowds, 
with heads uncovered, as the train which bore the martyred 
President swept by. It was nearly midnight when Albany 
was reached ; and it was not until one o'clock, on the morning 
of the twenty-sixth, that the removal of the coffin-lid exposed, 
in the State Capitol, the white face that so many were anxious 
to see. From that time until two o'clock in the afternoon, 
there was a constant throng, the line reaching four deep from 
the State House to the foot of State street. It was estimated 
that there were sixty thousand people in the streets of Albany. 
Here Avas another great procession ; and, at four o'clock in the 
afternoon, the train started for Buffalo. Throughout the en- 
tire ranee of lars:e and beautiful towns which the Central 
Railroad threads in its passage from Albany to Buffalo, the 
same demonstrations of grief and respect were witnessed 
which had thus far distinguished the homeward journey of 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 531 

the dead President. The reporter of the New York Tribune 
wrote that "a funeral in each house in Central New York 
would hardly have added solemnity to the day.*' 

At seven o'clock on the morning of the twenty-seventh, 
the funeral train reached Buffalo ; and the sacred remains were 
taken to St. James' Hall, where, from half-past nine until eight 
o'clock in the evening of the next day, they were visited by 
an immense throng of persons. Buffalo had already paid its 
tribute to Mr. Lincoln's memory by a large procession on the 
day of the funeral ceremonies at Washington, and omitted the 
usual pageant on this occasion; but a fine military escort, ac- 
companied by a crowd of citizens, conducted the remains to 
the depot in the evening, which was left by the funeral train 
at ten o'clock, for the pursuit of the journey to Cleveland. 
The demonstrations of the popular grief which had been wit- 
nessed throughout the journey, were repeated at every station 
along the route. X ot only men, but women and children were 
up and wakeful all night, to catch a glimpse of the car which 
bore the precious dust of the beloved ruler; and, whenever 
the train stopped, flowers w^ere brought in and deposited upon 
the coffin. At Cleveland, great preparations were made to 
receive the President's remains and the funeral party, with 
befitting honors. A building for the deposit of the coffin was 
erected in the park, that the people might have easy access to 
ito The city was crowded at an early hour, on Friday morn- 
ing ; and on every hand were displayed the symbols of mourn- 
ing. At seven o'clock, the train arrived at the Union depot, 
amid a salute of artillery; and from this point it Avas taken 
back to the Euclid Street station of the Cleveland and 
Pittsburg Railroad, whence tl)3 procession moved — the most 
imposing pageant that this beautiful city on the lake had ever 
created or witnessed. Bishop Mcllvaine, of the diocese of 
Ohio, read the Episcopal burial service on the opening of the 
coffin, and offered prayer; after which the long procession filed 
through the pavilion, and caught a last glimpse of the honored 
dead. All day long, through falling rain, the crowd, unabated ' 
in numbers, pressed through the little buUcling. At ten o'clock 



532 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

at night, one hundred thousand people had viewed the re- 
mains ; and then the gates were shut. Soon afterwards, the 
coffin was taken from its beautiful resting-place ; and, at twelve 
o'clock, the funeral party was again in progress, on the way 
to Columbus, the capital of the state. 

But why repeat the same story again, and again? Why 
say more than that at Columbus and Indianapolis and Chi- 
cago, as well as at all the intermediate places, men did what 
they could, and all that they could, to honor him who had 
died in their service — who had been murdered for his truth to 
them and to freedom ? It was a most remarkable exhibition 
of the popular feeling, and is unparalleled in history. There 
was nothing empty, nothing fictitious about it. There was 
never a sincerer tribute of affection rendered to a man than 
this. It was a costly one, but men rendered it gladly, and 
hesitated no more at the cost than if they were expressing 
their grief over the lost members of their own homes. 

It seemed almost like profanation of the sleeping President's 
rest, to bear him so far, and expose him so much ; but the peo- 
ple demanded it, and would take no denial. All parties, all 
sects — friends and foes alike — mingled in their affectionate 
tributes of honor and sorrow. 

When the remains of the President reached Chicago, they 
were at home. They were in the State in which he had spent 
the most of his life ; and the people grasped him with almost 
a selfish sense of ownership. He was theirs. Only a short 
distance from the spot, lay his old antagonist, Douglas, in his 
last sleep. The party champions were once more near each 
other, upon their favorite soil; but their eloquent lips were 
silent — silent with an eloquence surpassing sound, in the proc- 
lamation of mighty changes in the nation, and the suggestions 
of mutability and mortality among men. One more journey, 
and the weary form would rest. The people of Chicago hon- 
ored the dead President with emotions that few thus far had 
experienced. Mr. Lincoln had been loved and admired by 
the people of Illinois, long before the rest of the nation knew 
anything about him. His face and voice had been familiar to 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 533 

them for many years; and they had introduced him to the 
country and to immortality. He had walked through the 
portals of the new city into a fame as wide as the world. 
"He comes back to us," said the Chicago Tribune, "his work 
finished, the republic vindicated, its enemies overthrown and 
suing for peace". :; '■■' * He left us, asking that the prayers 
of the people might be offered to Almighty God for wisdom 
and help to sec the right path and pursue it. Those prayers 
were answered. He accomplished his work, and now the 
prayers of the people ascend for help, to bear the great afflic- 
tion which has fallen upon them. Slain as no other man has 
been slain, cut down while interposing his great charity and 
mercy between the wrath of the people and guilty traitors, 
the people of Chicago tenderly receive the sacred ashes, with 
bowed heads and streaming eyes." 

The remains reached Springfield on the morning of May 
third. Throughout the long ride of two hundred miles, 
over the continuous prairie that lies between Chicago and 
Springfield, there had transpired the most affecting demon- 
strations of the popular grief. Mottoes, flags, minute-guns, 
immense gatherings of the people, music, flowers, and copi- 
ous tears, testified the universal sorrow. But in Springfield 
lived the heartiest mourners. Here were his intimate and 
life-long personal friends ; and they received the dust of their 
murdered neighbor and fellow-citizen with a tenderness of 
which the people of no other community were capable. The 
President was forgotten in the companion and friend, endeared 
to them by a thousand ties. The State House, the Lincoln 
residence, and every store, public building, and dwelling, were 
draped heavily with mourning — a manifestation of the public 
sorrow which remained for weeks and months after it had dis- 
appeared from all other places that had been passed in the long 
procession. For twenty-four hours, or vmtil ten o'clock on 
tke morning of May fourth, the people pressed into the State 
House, to gain a last glimpse of their departed friend. Through 
all the long night of the third, the steady tramp of thousands 
was heard, winding up the stair-case that led to the Represen- 



534 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tatlves' Chamber, and passing out again. Silently, patiently, 
sorrowfully, the unfailing procession moved ; and it did not 
stop until the coffin-lid was shut down, no more to be opened. 
The procession which conducted the remains to their final 
resting-place, in a tomb prepared for them at Oak Ridge Cem- 
etery, a beautiful spot about two miles from the city, was un- 
der the immediate charge of Major-general Joseph Hooker. 
The town was thronged: and every train that arrived ana:- 
mented the crowd. A large choir of two hundred and fifty 
singers sang the familiar hymn, beginning with the words, 

" Children of the Heavenly King," 

as the coffin was borne out to the hearse ; and amid the sound* 
of solemn dirges and minute-guns the mournful procession 
moved. The cemetery was occupied by a vast multitude, be- 
fore the procession arrived ; and from hill and tree they looked 
tearfully on, while the coffin which contained the dust of their 
friend was consigned to its sepulcher. By the side of it was 
placed the coffin of "little Willie;" while the living sons, 
Robert and Thomas, standing by the tomb, were objects of an 
affectionate interest only equaled by the deep sorrow for their 
own and their country's loss. Rev. A. Hale of Springfield 
opened the religious exercises with prayer ; a hymn written for 
the occasionwas sung ; selections from Scripture, and Mr. Lin- 
coln's last Inaugural were read ; and Bishop Simpson, a favorite 
of Mr. Lincoln while living, delivered an eloquent address. 
Requiems and dirges, sung and played, completed the exer- 
cises of the occasion, closing with a benediction by Rev. Dr. 
Gurley of Washington. 

The address of Bishop Simpson, able, affectionate, and ex- 
cellent as it was, contained nothing more notable than the 
quotation that the speaker made from one of Mr. Lincoln's 
speeches, uttered in 1859, in which, speaking of the slave 
power, he said: "Broken by it I, too, may be, bow to ir,*I 
never will. The probability that we may fail in the struggle, 
ought not to deter us from the support of a cause which I 
deem to be just; and it shall not deter me. If ever I feel 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. OoO 

the foul within me elevate unci expand to those dimensions not 
wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I con- 
template the cause of my country, deserted by all the world 
besides, and I, standing up boldly and alone, and hurling de- 
fiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, without contem- 
plating- consequences, before high Heaven and in the face of 
the world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem 
it, of the land of my life, my liberty and my love." No in- 
spiration finer than this breathes in any of Mr. Lincoln's ut- 
terances. It almost seems as if an intimation of his life and 
death were given to him at the moment — as if a glimpse into 
his own and his country's future had been vouchsafed to his 
excited vision. 

The crowd slowly separated ; the citizens moved back to 
their homes; those who had accompanied the precious re- 
mains — at last resting, and in safe and affectionate keeping — 
from Washington and points along the route, took their de- 
parture by the out-going trains; the guard paced their little 
round before the tomb, where through the grate the large and 
the little coffin lay in the dim light ; and the people of Spring- 
field were left to their grief and their glory. 

There, surrounded by the sweetest scenes of nature, his 
tomb a shrine, his name the watchword of liberty, his fame 
in the affectionate keeping of mankind, his memory hallowed 
by martyrdom for the humane and Christian principles to 
which his life was devoted, the weary patriot rests. His sun 
went down suddenly, and whelmed the country in a darkness 
which was felt by every heart ; but far up the clouds sprang 
soon the golden twilight, flooding the heavens with radiance, 
and illuminating every uncovered brow with the hope of a 
fair to-morrow. The aching head, the shattered nerves, the 
anxious heart, the weary frame, are all at rest; and the noble 
spirit that informed them, bows reverently and humbly in the 
presence of Him in whom it trusted, and to whose work it 
devoted the troubled years of its earthly life. 

The death of Mr. Lincoln wrought a great change in the 
feelings of all the representatives of foreign opinion, not 



536 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

only toward him, but toward the country and its cause ; and 
many were the testimonials that came in every ship, of for- 
eign sympathy with the nation in its bereavement, and with 
those whose family life had been so cruelly dissolved by the 
deed of the assassin. The British Queen wrote to Mrs. Lin- 
coln a letter of condolence, with her own hand. All the for- 
eign governments took occasion to express their horror at the 
crime which had deprived the nation of its head, and their 
sympathy with the people thus suddenly and violently bereft. 
The London Times, which had always been unjust to Mr. 
Lincoln, said: "It would be unjust not to acknowledge that 
Mr. Lincoln was a man who could not, under any circumstan- 
ces, have been easily replaced." Further on in its article, it 
confessed that "Englishmen learned to respect a man who 
showed the best characteristics of their race, in his respect 
for what is good in the past, acting in unison with a recogni- 
tion of what was made necessary by the events of passing 
history." The London Star said: "It can never be forgotten, 
while history is read, that the hands of southern partisans have 
been reddened by the foulest assassin-plot the world has ever 
known ; that they have been treacherously dipped in the blood 
of one of the best citizens and purest patriots to whom the 
land of Washington gave birth." The London Spectator 
spoke of Mr. Lincoln as "the noblest President whom America 
has had since the time of Washington;" and "certainly the 
best, if not the ablest, man ruling over any country in the 
civilized world." The London Saturday Review said: "Dur- 
ing the arduous experience of four years, Mr. Lincoln con- 
stantly rose in general estimation, by calmness of temper, by 
an intuitively logical appreciation of the character of the 
conflict, and by undisputed sincerity." The Economist said: 
" The murder of Mr. Lincoln is a very great and very lament- 
able event — perhaps the greatest and most lamentable which 
has occurred since the Coup d'etat, if not since Waterloo. It 
affects directly and immensely the Avelfare of the three most 
powerful countries in the world, — America, France and Eng- 
land, — and it affects them all for evil." Goldwin Smith, in 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 537 

Macmillan's Magazine, said: "lie (Mr. Lincoln) professed 
to wait on events, or, rather, on the manifestations of the 
moral forces around him, wherein, with a mind sobered by 
responsibility and unclouded by selfishness, he earnestly en- 
deavored to read the will of God, which, having read it, he 
patiently followed to the best of his power. In him, his na- 
tion has lost, not a king, or a prophet, — not a creative moulder 
of its destinies, or an inspired unfolder of its future, — but 
simply a sensible interpreter, and a wise, temperate, honest 
executor of its own better mind." 

Even these expressions of the British press do not indicate 
the popular feeling Avith which the English people received 
the announcement of Mr. Lincoln's assassination. The ex- 
citement which fdled the public mind, on the reception of the 
startling tidings, in all the great cities and considerable towns 
of England, was only equaled by that which swept over those 
of our own country. It was hard to tell whether horror at the 
crime or grief for its victim was the predominant emotion of 
the British people. Men who applauded the deed, were kicked 
out of assemblies in London, as they were in New York. The 
dignified Mr. Mason, the rebel commissioner, was boldly con- 
demned for an attempt to extenuate the crime on the ground 
that it was a natural incident of civil war. 

At home, the change of feeling was hardly less marked and 
gratifying. Presses that had done Mr. Lincoln injustice 
throughout his whole career, made haste to lay their tribute 
of respectful praise upon his bier. Men who had cursed him, 
joined tearfully in the processions which attended his lono- 
journey homeward. Even from the depths of the dead re- 
bellion, there came honest lamentations, and sincere praises. 
The eyes of his " blinded fellow countrymen," which he so 
ardently desired to open, were unsealed at last, to behold, in 
the man they had so long regarded with hatred or contempt, 
the friend they had always possessed, and the benefactor they 
sorely needed, but had lost forever. 



538 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Andrew Johnson, the Vice-president, became, under the 
provisions of the Constitution, the President of the United 
States, by taking the oath of office, on the morning of the 
murder. The people who had battled for the Constitution 
and the laws so long, did not dream of a resort to any other 
course. The speculations of a portion of the foreign press, 
concerning this event, showed how unworthy and inadequate 
still was the estimate of the American people and their insti- 
tutions. There was not a hand lifted, or a word uttered, to 
question or dispute the step which installed a new President 
over the republic; and there was not, in a single American 
heart, a doubt as to the result. There was no panic, no ex- 
citement, no danger, no disaster ; but the country kept to its 
groove, and felt no jar as it slid into the new administration. 

The world could not conceal Mr. Lincoln's murderer. It 
had no waste so wide, no cavern so deep, as to give him a safe 
hiding-place. That was evident to everybody; and would 
have been foreseen by himself, had he not been stultified by his 
greed for blood. Large rewards were offered for his appre- 
hension, and military and police were quickly on the alert. 
After a few days of doubt, it became evident that Booth, with 
a companion, had passed over the Navy Yard Bridge, which 
crosses the eastern branch of the Potomac. It was known 
that the assassin had been in the habit of spending much time 
in Charles County, Maryland, and had been in correspondence 
with the disloyal people there. It afterwards appeared that 
Booth, accompanied by David C. Harold, rode all night after 
the commission of the murder; and that near Bogantown lie 
called on one Dr. Mudd, to have his leg dressed, which had 
been fractured by his leap upon the stage, at the time he com- 
mitted the murder. The detectives, reaching this region, and 
hearing that Dr. Mudd had received the visit of two suspi- 
cious strangers, arrested him and all his family. From this 
point, Booth and his accomplice were tracked toward the Poto- 
mac. The ruffians were undoubtedly aided in their progress 
by disloyal citizens, for the officers were frequently not more 
than an hour behind them. Although gunboats were patroll- 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 5-39 

iing the river, the murderer and his accomplice crossed the 
Potomac under cover of darkness. It was soon afterwards 
ascertained where they had crossed, and the cavalry started in 
pursuit. The men were found at last in a barn belonging to 
William Garratt. The building was surrounded, and Booth 
was called upon to surrender himself, lie flatly refused to 
do so. Harold was ready to surrender, hut Booth cursed him 
for a coward: and declared to Colonel Baker, at the head of 
the force, that he would not he taken alive. The barn was 
fired, and Booth attempted to extinguish the flame, hut failed." 
Harold then gave himself up, while the murderer remained, 
displaying all the qualities of the hardened desperado. Ser- 
geant Boston Corbctt, moved hy a sudden impulse, drew up 
his pistol, and fired upon Booth, who was seen standing in 
the harn, with a revolver in each hand ; and planted a ball in 
his neck, which passed entirely through his head. He died 
within less than three hours, sending to his mother a message to 
the effect that he had died for his country, and exhibiting no 
penitence whatever for the terrible deed he had committed. 
He was shot on the twenty-sixth of April, twelve days after 
the murder. His body was taken back to Washington, and 
was buried, no one save those to whom the task of sepulture 
was assigned having any knowledge of its place of burial. 
Harold was committed to prison to await his trial. 

John Wilkes Booth was the son of the famous actor, Ju- 
nius Brutus Booth, and had attained some celebrity in his 
father's profession. He was an exceedingly handsome man ; 
but he had been notoriously and grossly profligate and im- 
moral in his habits. Still, his gifts and his beauty had made 
him a favorite in certain nominally respectable social circles. 
His sympathy with the rebellion was well understood in 
Washington, but he was never regarded as a dangerous man. 
That he committed the crime which cost him his life from any 
romantic love of the South, or from any desire to avenge the 
South for fancied wrongs, is not probable. The deed seems 
to have been the offspring of a morbid desire for immortality. 
He had given frequent hints, in his conversation, of the imV 



540 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

erable passion which possessed him ; and there is no doubt that 
he had "worked himself into a belief that he should rid the 
world of a tyrant by murdering the President, and thus link 
his name with a startling deed which, in the future, would be 
admired as a glorious act of heroism. Certainly his deed was 
one of wonderful boldness ; and the bravery which he ex- 
hibited at his capture was worthy of a better cause and a 
better man. 

Fortunately, no fatal wounds were inflicted upon Mr. Sew- 
ard in Payne's attempt upon his life, or upon any of those 
who were subjects of violence at that ruffian's hands. The 
Secretary and his son, Mr. Frederick Seward, were desper- 
ately wounded ; but, under skillful surgical care, they entirely 
recovered. Payne was arrested, and, with his fellow con- 
spirators — David E. Harold (who was captured with Booth,) 
George A. Atzerodt, Michael O'Laughlin, Edward Spangler 
(who held Booth's horse at the theater, and aided his escape,) 
Samuel Arnold, Mary E. Surratt and Dr. Samuel Mudd — 
was tried by a military commission. The conspiracy content- 
plated not only the murder of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward, 
but that of Vice-president Johnson and Lieutenant-general 
Grant. Booth alone accomplished his task. Payne made a 
desperate effort, — such as only a man of his great physical 
strength could make ; but failed. Atzerodt, to whose hands 
the murder of the Vice-president was committed, was not 
competent, morally or physically, to the task he undertook; 
while General Grant escaped the projected attempt upon his 
life by leaving the city. Harold, Atzerodt, Payne and Mrs. 
Surratt, the latter of whom aided and abetted the plot, were 
sentenced to be hanged ; and they suffered the penalty of 
their crimes on the seventh day of July. Dr. Mudd, Samuel 
Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlin were sentenced to hard 
labor for life, an.d were consigned to the Dry Tortugas. 
Edward Spangler accompanied them, sentenced to hard labor 
for six years. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 541 

The writer cannot bid farewell to the reader, and to the il- 
lustrious subject of this biography, without a closing tribute 
to a character unique in history, and an administration that 
stands alone in the annals of the nation. AVe have seen one 
of the humblest of American citizens struggling through per- 
sonal trials and national turmoils, into the light of universal 
fame, and an assured immortality of renown. We have seen 
him become the object of warm and devoted affection to a 
whole nation. We have witnessed such manifestations of 
grief at his loss as the death of no ruler has called forth, within 
the memory of man. We have seen a great popular govern- 
ment, poisoned in every department by the virus of treason, 
and blindly and feebly tottering to its death, restored to health 
and soundness through the beneficent ministry of this true 
man, who left it with vigor in its veins, irresistible strength 
in its arms, the fire of exultation and hope in its eyes, and 
with such power and majesty in its step, that the earth shook 
beneath its stately goings. We have seen four millions of 
African bondmen who, groaning in helpless slavery when he 
received the crown of power, became freemen by his word 
before death struck that crown from his brow. We have 
seen the enemies of his country vanquished and suing for par- 
don; and the sneering nations of the world, Avhose incontinent 
contempt and spite were poured in upon him during the first 
years of his administration, becoming first silent, then respect- 
ful, and then unstinted in their admiration and approbation. 

These marvelous changes in public feeling, and the revolu- 
tions imbodiedin these wonderfnl results, were not the work 
of a mighty genius, sitting above the nation, and ordering its 
affairs. That Mr. Lincoln was much more than an ordinary 
man, in intellectual power, is sufficiently evident ; but it was 
not by intellectual power that he wrought out the grand re- 
sults of his life. These were rather the work of the heart, 
than the head. With no wish to depreciate the motives or 
undervalue the names of Mr. Lincoln's predecessors in office, it 
may be declared that never, in the history of the government, 
have the affairs of that office been administered with such di- 



542 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

rect reference to the will of God, and the everlasting princi- 
ples of righteousness and justice, as they were during his 
administration. It was eminently a Christian administration — 
one which, in its policy and acts, expressed the convictions of 
a Christian people. Standing above the loose morality of 
party politics, standing above the maxims and conventional- 
isms of statesmanship, leaving aside all the indirections and 
insincerities of diplomacy, trusting the people, leaning upon 
the people, inspired by the people, who in their Christian 
homes and Christian sanctuaries gave it their confidence, this 
administration of Abraham Lincoln stands out in history as 
the finest exhibition of a Christian democracy the world has 
ever seen. The power of a true-hearted Christian man, in 
perfect sympathy with a true-hearted Christian people, was 
Mr. Lincoln's power. Open on one side of his nature to all 
descending influences from Him to whom he prayed, and open 
on the other to all ascending influences from the people whom 
he served, he aimed simply to do his duty, to God and men. 
Acting rightly, he acted greatly. While he took care of 
deeds, fashioned by a purely ideal standard, God took care of 
results. Moderate, frank, truthful, gentle, forgiving, loving, 
just, Mr. Lincoln will always be remembered as eminently a 
Christian President ; and the almost immeasurably great re- 
sults which he had the privilege of achieving, were due to the 
fact that he was a Christian President. 

Conscience, and not expediency, not temporary advantage, 
not popular applause, not the love of power, was the rul- 
ing and bidding motive of his life. He was conscientious 

o o o 

in his devotion to the Constitution and the laws. In this 
he was in advance of his people, and in advance of a multi- 
tude of his own friends. With every constitutional right, 
he dealt tenderly and carefully, while taunted by his own 
friends with subserviency to an institution which, in his in- 
most soul, he hated. His respect for law was as profound 
and sincere as his respect for God and his will. Uninfluenced 
by popular clamor, and unbent by his own humane and Chris- 
tian desire to see all men free, he did not speak the word of 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 543 

emancipation until his duty to the Constitution which lie had 
sworn to protect and defend demanded it. There is no doubt 
that, if he could have saved the country without destroying 
slavery, he would have done it, and done it against the most 
ardent wishes of his heart, through his regard for the Consti- 
tution which protected the inhuman institution, and the oath 
by which he had been invested with power. It was not slow- 
ness, nor coldness, nor indifference, that delayed the emanci- 
pation of the slaves. It was loyal, devoted, self-denying 
virtue. 

Mr. Lincoln was conscientious in his patience. He knew 
and felt the weakness of human nature, and appreciated the 
force of education in moulding character and opinion. Hence, 
he was patient with his enemies, and equally patient with 
equally unreasonable friends. No hasty act of his adminis- 
tration can be traced to his impatience. "When such an act 
was performed, and was followed by its inevitable consequen- 
ces of evil, it originated in the impatience of those whom he 
could not control. His steps were taken with the deliberate- 
ness of destiny ; and, as these steps are retraced by the histo- 
rian, he can compare them to nothing but those leisurely and 
irresistible proceedings by which the Great Father in whom 
the good President trusted had wrought out his will in crea- 
tion and Providence. Step by step, hand hi hand with events, 
he worked and waited patiently, for the great consummation 
to which all the efforts of his life were devoted. Maligned, 
misunderstood, abused, cursed, his motives the foot-balls of 
malice and envy and pride and foolishness, he waited patiently 
for history to vindicate him, and permitted no smarting sense 
of personal injustice to divert him from his duty to his country. 

He was conscientious in his regard for human rights. His 
opposition to slavery, and his love of the African, were no 
mere matters of policy, or means for winning power. He 
had a tender, brotherly regard for every human being; and 
the thought of oppression was a torment to him. There was 
nothing that moved him to such indignation as a wrong com- 
mitted against the helpless ones of his own kind. He believed 



5-il LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

that negroes were men, endowed by their Creator with the 
rights of men ; and, thus believing, there was no manly privi- 
lege which he enjoyed, that he would not have been glad to 
see conferred upon them. Hence, had he lived, he would 
loo-ically have numbered himself among those who will agitate 
the right of universal loyal suffrage until that right shall be 
secured to every loyal man living under the American flag. 

In Mr. Lincoln's life and character, the American people 
have received a benefaction not less in permanent importance 
and value, than in the revolution in opinion and policy by 
which he introduced them to a new national life. He has 
given them a statesman without a statesman's craftiness, a 
politician without a politician's meannesses, a great man with- 
out a great man's vices, a philanthropist without a philanthro- 
pist's impracticable dreams, a Christian without pretensions, 
a ruler without the pride of place and power, an ambitious 
man without selfishness, and a successful man without vanity. 
On the basis of such a manhood as this, all the coming gen- 
erations of the nation will not fail to build high and beautiful 
ideals of human excellence, whose attractive power shall raise to 
a nobler level the moral sense and moral character of the nation. 
This true manhood — simple, unpretending, sympathetic with 
all humanity, and reverent toward God — is among the noblest 
of the nation's treasures ; and through it, God has breathed, 
and will continue to breathe, into the nation, the elevating 
and purifying power of his own divine life. 

Humble child of the backwoods — boatman, ax-man, hired 
laborer, clerk, surveyor, captain, legislator, lawyer, debater, 
orator, politician, statesman, President, savior of the republic, 
emancipator of a race, true Christian, true man — we receive 
thy life and its immeasurably great results, as the choicest 
gifts that a mortal has ever bestowed upon us ; grateful to thee 
for thy truth to thyself, to us, and to God ; and grateful to that 
ministry of Providence and grace which endowed thee so 
richly, and bestowed thee upon the nation and mankind. 



